Fred Figner (2 December 1866

Milevsko Milevsko (; german: Mühlhausen) is a town in Písek District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,000 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Dmýštice, Klisín, Něžovice, Rukáveč and Velká are administra ...

- 19 January 1947), also known as Frederico Figner, born as Friedrich Figner, was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

-born entrepreneur, cinema and music industry pioneer mostly in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. He was Jewish emigrant, who lived in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and landed in

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in t ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 1891. He traveled to many regions of Brazil doing public exhibitions of

Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

. Nine years later Figner settled down in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, where he established in 1900 the ''Casa Edison'', the first commercial recording company in Brazil. Such company is considered a pioneer in recording and selling

Brazilian popular music Brazilian commonly refers to: * Something of, from or relating to Brazil * Brazilian Portuguese, the dialect of the Portuguese language used mostly in Brazil * Brazilians, the people (citizens) of Brazil, or of Brazilian descent Brazilian may also ...

. He also founded ''Odeon'', the first Brazilian factory of phonograph records. In 1896 he filmed in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

what are now considered the first three films of the country. Figner's three films consisted of short depictions of sights of the city of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

(named ''Vistas de Palermo'', ''La Avenida de Mayo'' and ''La Plaza de Mayo'') and were screened 24 November 1896. Little is known of Figner regarding his filming activities, and his work is usually obscured by that of

Eugenio Py Eugenio is an Italian and Spanish masculine given name deriving from the Greek ' Eugene'. The name is Eugénio in Portuguese and Eugênio in Brazilian Portuguese. The name's translated literal meaning is well born, or of noble status. Similar de ...

's, a Frenchman who filmed in 1897 '' La Bandera Argentina'' ("The Argentine Flag").

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Figner, Fred 1866 births 1947 deaths Brazilian record producers Brazilian people of Czech descent Argentine cinematographers Argentine film directors Cinema pioneers Czech Jews