Venezuela was introduced to cinema as a for-profit industry in the 1890s, when the medium became international. There were at least eight national films made in the decade, by three groups of filmmakers — one of the groups was based in Maracaibo and one was based in Caracas. The first film screening in the nation may have taken place as early as 1894, but is generally reported as 1896, with this later date being the first scheduled public screening.
Introduction and reception
Unlike other countries where cinema came as a product of social development, cinema came to Venezuela, like most of Latin America, through two pathways; one with the locals only as the viewers, the other with them being viewed. The passive involvement of the continent with the development of film was described by , who referred to cinema at its arrival as "another foreign import".:99 The first path stemmed from rapidly developing modernity,:100–101 albeit in a relationship dependent on neo-colonialism by Western culture,:99 with Luis Manuel Méndez being employed to create electrical infrastructure resulting in him bringing a projector to Maracaibo.:42-43 The second was realized as Venezuela being a subject of films, with companies from France and the United States choosing to depict the country in their films for their own reasons: the interest of the exotic:100 and propaganda,:1 respectively.
While some films may have been shown in the nation in 1894 and 1895 by the Kinetoscope Company on a Kinetoscope, the first scheduled, multi-show, and completely public screenings took place in 1896 with a Vitascope operated by Manuel Trujillo Durán under the employ of Méndez.:42-44 Trujillo Durán travelled around Venezuela and then onto Colombia with the Vitascope projector films, screening in Venezuela between 11 July and 29 December 1896; as he was traveling he may have acquired new films from the company to show at different locations.:44-45 By the end of the century, two other cinema devices had been used in Venezuela: the Projectoscope and the Cinematograph.:10
Reviews in contemporary newspapers of film screenings have mentioned at least some of the films being well-received; The Monroe Doctrine was said to have been popular among its Venezuelan crowd for depicting their own political reality, and had a large group of people waiting outside the Baralt Theatre to watch it,:43-44 while Muchachos bañándose en la laguna de Maracaibo was "loudly applauded" at its debut.:28 Michelle Leigh Farrell of Georgetown University also writes in general that when projectors first arrived "the theaters in Maracaibo were filled to view both domestic and imported films".:21 However, author Stephen M. Hart suggests that the Venezuelan public quickly became uninterested in the films on offer, which were mostly the actuality films typical of the time, wanting something more exciting.:13
A 1897 review of early Venezuelan films in the Maracaibo newspaper El Cronista reports on the projector being mishandled, saying that the tape seemed to stick, and mentions that the theatre was not well-lit to be able to see the film play very well.:28
Azuaga García of the Universitat de Valencia analyzes media coverage of the early film screenings, contrasting the Venezuelan treatment with that of France by describing it as very warm,:29 writing that:
Yolanda Sueiro Villanueva of Central University of Venezuela looks at the reception afforded cinema upon its later arrival in Caracas. The newspaper reviews, here, show a different class of reporting: they remark on the technological advancements required to make the show happen and on the inherent quality of the medium of film, rather than the films themselves.:10 Sueiro Villanueva writes that:
Sueiro Villanueva also describes the Caracas press' reception of the films created by Carlos Ruiz Chapellín and Ricardo Rouffet, which were shown in a circus rather than the grand theatres and halls that previous screenings had occupied::30 they were almost completely overlooked; only one newspaper mentions the films being shown, and does not elaborate beyond the titles.:71
Separate from the existing filmmaking activity, a film circuit group was established in Caracas in 1899, which included the Teatro Caracas, the Circo Metropolitano, a small bar opposite the Circo, the Café La Francia, and the Socorro bodega. After this, cinematography exhibitions appear only sparsely in Venezuela until about 1907.:31 Farrell writes that in the 1890s Venezuela was a frontrunner in the industry of film within Latin America, a status it lost after the state became involved with production in the 20th century.:20-21