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El Gran Film del Uruguay (The Great Film of Uruguay)
About the project
In 2021, Cine Casero and the Universidad Catolica de Uruguay were awarded a Planning Grant to catalog and inventory a collection of rare documentary films shot by the trailblazing 20th century director Carlos Alonso.
Project lead, Felipe Bellocq worked with colleagues at the Cine Casero team to appraise the current state of 40 cans of 35mm nitrate prints donated by Carlos Alonso to the Archivo Nacional de La Imagen y La Palabra in Uruguay. Alonso was renowned in the early years of cinema, notably for his silent film El Pequeno Heroe del Arroyo de Oro (The Little Hero of Arroyo de Oro, 1929), which is considered to be a pioneering work of Uruguayan cinema.
After an initial investigation into the collection, Felipe and the Cine Casero project team strongly suspected that the film reels were part of an attempted film series called El Gran Film del Uruguay (The Great Film of Uruguay), which aimed to cover the thriving modernity throughout Uruguay’s provinces in the 1930s and 1940s. By drawing attention to the current condition of the collection, the team hoped to raise awareness of the organizations involved, peremptory risks, as well as suggest measures that could be taken to improve the conditions of this essential part of Uruguay’s film heritage.
The Alonso collection captures the beauty of a place lost to industrialization and a local culture altered by modernization.
Beauty lost to Industrialization
What makes this collection so important?
The Alonso collection captures the beauty of a place lost to industrialization and a local culture altered by modernization. The materials consist of nitrate film shot throughout different provinces throughout Uruguay – including Tacuarembó, Flores, Artigas, Soriano, Colonia, Durazno, Treinta y Tres, Río Negro and Rivera – making it the earliest and most extensive collection of documentary narratives offering a glimpse at a forgotten way of life in Uruguay.
In this way, this film series is of significant value not just for capturing the physical structures of historic Uruguay, but also the country’s national identity and gradual changes brought on by industrialization and modernization. Felipe and his team believe film is a useful tool in maintaining memory, and this collection will allow researchers and students in Uruguay and beyond to explore a culture that has not been seen by generations.
Preserving Nitrate Film
What made these materials at-risk?
The collection is housed in the Nitrate Vault of the Cinemateca Uruguaya. Although the materials have adequate ventilated plastic containers in good condition, their storage conditions are far from ideal. The vault does not have an adequate installation to maintain stable climatic conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.), nor does it have an antechamber for the acclimatization of materials.
Felipe and his team believe that the vast majority of the nitrate materials in the entire country of Uruguay are stored there, posing an imminent danger based on the flammability of the materials. After general review, the team found that 40% of the collection is in serious danger of loss.
Before Felipe and the Cine Casero team conducted their inventory, the content of this rare collection was almost completely unknown to archivists and cultural historians. With the support of MEAP funding, Felipe and Cine Casero have created a detailed inventory, technical assessment, and full collection report. This work prepares the film reels for future digitization and discovery.
Superochistas: Super-8 Film Digitization
What’s next for Cine Casero?
After successfully completing their Planning Grant, Felipe and Cine Casero received a second round of MEAP funding to digitize homemade Super 8 films created during the Uruguayan dictatorship (1973-1985). During this period, several cultural activities were curtailed including cinema-going and filmmaking. Independent (usually amateur) filmmakers created animations, documentaries and short films with Super-8 cameras. With MEAP funding, Cine Casero will now create infrastructure for film digitization within Uruguay and preserve these unique films that shed light on lived experience during dictatorship.
Learn more about the Superochistas project(opens in a new tab)