Fernando Birri
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Fernando Birri (March 13, 1925 – December 27, 2017) was an Argentine
film maker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
and theorist. He was considered by many to be the father of the new
Latin American cinema Latin American cinema refers collectively to the film output and film industries of Latin America. Latin American film is both rich and diverse, but the main centers of production have been Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Latin American cinema flou ...
.


Biography

Birri was born in
Santa Fe, Argentina Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz (; usually called just Santa Fe) is the capital city of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is situated in north-eastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies from the Hernanda ...
. After being involved in
theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
and
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, he went to
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
to study film-making at the ''
Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia The Centro sperimentale di cinematografia (Experimental Film Centre or Italian National film school) was established in 1935 in Italy and aims to promote the art and technique of cinematography and film. The centre is the oldest film school in ...
'', from 1950 to 1953, and appeared in the 1955 Italian film ''
Gli Sbandati ''Abandoned'' ( it, Gli sbandati) is a 1955 Italian film set during the aftermath of the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 during World War II. The film entered the 1955 Venice Film Festival, where it received a special mention. It is the directo ...
''. In 1956 he returned to Santa Fe, to form the Film Institute at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral university. A year later he started filming scenes of poverty and human misery in lower-class Santa Fe. The project, billed as a "survey film", spanned three years, and filming wrapped up in 1958. Before screening the resulting 33-minute documentary, '' Tire dié'', Birri debuted with a short film called ''La primera fundación de Buenos Aires'', which premiered in the
1959 Cannes Film Festival The 12th Cannes Film Festival was held from 30 April to 15 May 1959. The Palme d'Or went to the ''Orfeu Negro'' by Marcel Camus. The festival opened with '' Les Quatre Cents Coups'', directed by François Truffaut and closed with ''The Diary of An ...
, earning Birri critical acclaim and paving his way for further projects of similar nature, like ''Buenos Días, Buenos Aires'' (1960) and more famously ''Los inundados'' (1961), which won the
Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
award for Best First Film. After directing a short film about La Pampa Gringa (''La pampa gringa'') in 1963, Birri retired from directing and only returned 12 years later to make a movie about
Ernesto "Che" Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
(''Mi hijo el Che'') in 1985. His next film, also about El Che, was filmed in 1997 (''Che, ¿muerte de una utopía?''), but remained commercially unreleased. Birri has since done two more movies - ''El siglo del viento'' (1999) and ''ZA 05. Lo viejo y lo nuevo'' (2006). In 1986 Birri co-founded Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television (The International School of Film and Television), in San Antonio de Los Baños, Cuba. He was the school's first director. In fall 2009, Birri was a visiting professor at
Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
in Medford, Massachusetts. Birri may hold the record for the longest title of a motion picture ever, for his first film, the short (41 minutes) released at the 1959 Cannes film festival, ''Vera historia de la primera fundación de Buenos Aires como también de varias navegaciones de muchas partes desconocidas, islas de reinos, también de muchos peligros, peleas y escaramuzas, tanto por tierra como por mar, que nunca han sido descriptos en otras historias o crónicas, extraídos del libro 'Viajes al río de La Plata', original del soldado alemán Ulrico Schmidl, miembro de la expedición capitaneada por don Pedro de Mendoza, quien publicó por primera vez estas memorias, bien anotadas para utilidad pública en la ciudad de Francfort el año 1567''. It is usually referred to as ''La primera fundación de Buenos Aires''.


Filmography

As writer and director: * ''El Fausto Criollo'' (2011) * ''Elegia Fruilana'' (2007) * ''ZA 05. Lo viejo y lo nuevo'' (2006) * ''El siglo del viento'' (1999) * ''Che, ¿muerte de una utopía?'' (unreleased commercially - 1997) * '' Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes'' (1988) * ''Mi hijo el Che'' (1985) * ''ORG'' (1979) * ''La pampa gringa'' (short film - 1963) * '' Los Inundados'' (1961) * ''Buenos días, Buenos Aires'' (short film - 1960) * '' Tire dié'' (medium length film - 1960) * ''La primera fundación de Buenos Aires'' (short film - 1959)


Bibliography

* De Pascale Goffredo, ''Fernando Birri L'Altramerica'', Le Pleiadi, Napoli, 1994 * De Pascale Goffredo, ''Fernando Birri ein fahrender Cineast'', Henschel Verlag, Berlin, 1995


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Birri, Fernando 1925 births 2017 deaths Argentine film critics Argentine film directors Argentine male writers Argentine screenwriters Male screenwriters Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia alumni People from Santa Fe, Argentina