El drama del 15 de octubre
A woman in a long robe stands in front of a cemetery memorial, holding a large flag in her right hand, and raising her left arm.
Directed byDi Domenico brothers
Starring
  • Leovigildo Galarza
  • Jesús Carvajal
Production
company
Di Domenico Hermanos[1]
Release dates
  • 21 November 1915 (1915-11-21) (Salón Olympia, Colombia)
CountryColombia
LanguageSpanish

El drama del 15 de octubre (English: The Drama of 15 October) is a lost Colombian silent film directed by the Di Domenico brothers. Considered the first feature documentary film produced in Colombia, it depicts events surrounding the assassination of General Rafael Uribe Uribe on 15 October 1914,[2] including a reconstruction of the killing itself. It was first screened to the public on 21 November 1915 at Salón Olympia in Bogotá.

El drama del 15 de octubre was heavily criticized for its subject matter, for incorporating photographs of Uribe's body, and for employing Uribe's killers in its reconstruction of his assassination. A court ordered all copies of the documentary destroyed, and its content is known only from newspaper articles contemporary to the movie's release. The controversy surrounding the film seriously affected the Colombian movie industry, which released no films for several years after.

Synopsis

The film begins with a portrait of Uribe, and continues with footage of him while he was alive.[3] Scenes shot by Vincenzo Di Domenico then follow, starting with Uribe's funeral. His coffin is carried from the Primary Cathedral of Bogotá to the cemetery, followed by a large crowd, and cars with wreaths on them. The police and army are present at the ceremony.[3]

Uribe's killers, Leovigildo Galarza and Jesús Carvajal, are then shown. They take part in a reconstruction of the assassination, using actual images of the event.

Later in the film, tributes to Uribe on the first anniversary of his death are shown.[3] The documentary ends with an allegorical scene at Uribe's tomb. A few still images from this scene survive, showing a painting titled La Apoteosis, depicting a woman waving the Colombian flag.[3]

Cast

General Uribe's assassins (left and right)

Galarza and Carvajal play themselves in the reconstruction of the assassination.[4]

Production

In the early 1900s, economic growth in Colombia spurred the construction of movie theatres that played foreign films, such as the Olympia de Bogota (opened on 8 December 1912).[5] Italian brothers Francesco and Vincenzo Di Domenico moved to Bogotá in 1909,[6] and founded the Latin American Film Industry Society (Spanish: Sociedad Industrial Cinematográfica Latinoamericana) in 1913.[7][8] Colombian film historian Luis Alfredo Alvarez considers this group to be the first attempt at a national film industry organization in the country.[7] According to Colombian film critic Hugo Chaparro Valderrama, the Di Domenico brothers made El drama del 15 de octubre in an effort to be accepted into the Colombian community.[1]

Galarza and Carvajal each received US$50 for appearing in the documentary.[3]

Reception

El drama del 15 de octubre was first screened at Salón Olympia in Bogotá on 21 November 1915.[9][10] According to an article dated 23 or 24 November in the Barranquilla newspaper El Liberal, Uribe's family angrily protested.[11] Nonetheless, the film continued to play in several Colombian cities.[12]

The documentary's usage of Uribe's assassins, as well as photographs of Uribe's body,[3] caused widespread outrage in Colombia.[13] Newspapers deemed it an "immoral movie" and described Galarza and Carvajal's participation as "disgusting" and "criminal glorification",[14] made worse by their having been paid for it.[3] Riots took place in front of several theatres. Francesco Di Domenico cut the most controversial scenes and rereleased the documentary,[3] but the governor of Cundinamarca Department, which at the time included Bogotá, banned the film. All copies of the movie were later destroyed by the authorities,[3][15] and Galarza's and Carvajal's earnings from the documentary were confiscated.[16]

Lost film

El drama del 15 de octubre was banned by a Colombian court order, and all copies of the film were destroyed.[3][4][11] All that remains of the documentary are descriptions and few still images, from contemporary newspapers.[13]

Impact on Colombian cinema

El drama del 15 de octubre is regarded as Colombia's first feature documentary film,[13] but the controversy that resulted from its release effectively shut down the movie industry in Colombia for a time. Another film would not be released until Alfredo del Diestro and Máximo Calvo Olmedo's María,[17] considered to be Colombia's first feature film,[11][18] in 1922.[17]

In 1922, the liberal newspaper Mundo al día characterized El drama del 15 de octubre as a blockbuster, while also describing the image quality of the film as "imperfect and primitive".[15]

Interest in the film was revived in the 1970s and 1980s, as Colombian cinema's depiction of political and social issues was re-examined, and Compañía de Fomento Cinematográfico was created.[9]

El drama del 15 de octubre is an example of the crime genre, which is well-represented in Colombian cinema.[19][20]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 Valderrama 2006.
  2. ↑ Silva 1981b.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 El'Gazi 1999a.
  4. 1 2 Años de Cine 2004.
  5. ↑ Nieto & Rojas 1992, p. 132.
  6. ↑ Silva 1981a.
  7. 1 2 Mora 2012, p. 73.
  8. ↑ Romero 1997.
  9. 1 2 Lorza 2007.
  10. ↑ Proimagenes Colombia.
  11. 1 2 3 Zuluaga 2004.
  12. ↑ Pardo 1978.
  13. 1 2 3 Rivadeneira 2014.
  14. ↑ Zuluaga 2008.
  15. 1 2 León 2013.
  16. ↑ Moya 2005.
  17. 1 2 El'Gazi 1999b.
  18. ↑ Suárez 2009, p. 28.
  19. ↑ Suárez 2009, p. 81.
  20. ↑ Suárez 2009, p. 53.

References

  • "Años de Cine" (in Spanish). Bogotá: Revista Historia Credencial. September 2004.
  • "El drama del 15 de octubre" (in Spanish). Proimagenes Colombia.
  • El'Gazi, Leila (April 1999). El drama del 15 de octubre (F. DiDomenico) (in Spanish). Bogotá: Revista Historia Credencial.
  • Nieto, Jorge; Rojas, Diego (1992). Tiempos del Olympia (in Spanish). Bogotá: Fundación Patrimonio Filmico Colombiano. ISBN 958-95510-1-7.
  • Mora, Angélica-Maria Mateus (2012). Cinéma et audiovisuel latino-américain: l'Indien, images et conflits (in Spanish). Paris: Éditions L'Harmattan. ISBN 9782296997066.
  • Romero, Diego Rojas (April 1997). Cine colombiano: primeras noticias, primeros años, primeras películas (in Spanish). Revista Credencial Historia.
  • Silva, Hernando Salcedo (1981a). "Entrevista con Donato Di Doménico". Crónicas del Cine Colombiano (in Spanish). Carlos Valencia Editores. Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2014-11-02.
  • Silva, Hernando Salcedo (1981b). "Fin del periodo "primitivo"". Crónicas del Cine Colombiano (in Spanish). Carlos Valencia Editores.
  • Valderrama, Hugo Chapaaro (December 2006). "Cine colombiano 1915-1933: la historia, el melodrama y su histeria" (PDF). Revista de Estudios Sociales (in Spanish): 33–37. ISSN 0123-885X.
  • Rivadeneira, Ricardo (23 January 2014). "El drama del 15 de octubre, Francesco y Vincenzo di Domenico" (in Spanish). Revista Arcadia.
  • Zuluaga, Pedro Adrián (30 May 2004). "Noviembre 21 de 1915: El cine que no pudo ser" (in Spanish). Semana.
  • Pardo, Hernando Martínez (1978). Historia del cine colombiano (in Spanish). América Latina. pp. 40–41. OCLC 4349460.
  • Zuluaga, Pedro Adrián (28 January 2008). ¡Acción! Cine en Colombia (in Spanish). Colombian National Museum. p. 30. ISBN 9789588250380.
  • León, Juan Sebastián Ospina (2013). "Discursos, prácticas, historiografía: continuidad y tableau en el cine silente colombiano" (PDF). Imagofagia (in Spanish). Asociación Argentina de Estudios de Cine y Audiovisual: 6. ISSN 1852-9550. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2014-11-02.
  • Moya, Rito Alberto Torres (25 June 2005). "Un país en celuloide". Semana.
  • El'Gazi, Leila (April 1999). María (Máximo Calvo) (in Spanish). Bogotá: Revista Credencial Historia.
  • Suárez, Juana (2009). Cinembargo Colombia: ensayos críticos sobre cine y cultura (in Spanish). Cali: Université de Valle et Programa Editorial. ISBN 9789586707640.
  • Lorza, Juan (September 2007). "Cine para el olvido". El Clavo: Periodico Estudiantil de la Universidad Javeriana Cali (in Spanish). El Clavo: 24. ISSN 1794-4244.
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