Bolívar Films is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n film production company headquartered in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, which works on films, advertisements, post-production, and television. The Cine Archivo Bolívar Films is also one of the most important film archives in Venezuela.

History

Bolívar Films began in 1939, with documentaries made by Luis Guillermo Villegas Blanco and Samuel Dembo. The first known productions were a series of documentaries under the title ''Estampas regionales''. The company was consolidated in 1942, absorbing the companies Estudios Ávila and Cóndor Films, and setting up in the El Conde area of Caracas. It became registered on 14 October 1943. As well as government funding, Bolívar Films benefited from the first advertising boom in Venezuela, signing a contract with ARS Publicidad in 1944 to produce advertising shorts for cinema release. By 1946, the production company had its own building in eastern Caracas, was expanding and renovating its equipment to undertake the production of feature films, and could provide technical services to other producers. In addition, it produced the country's first weekly newscast with government commissions and advertising reporting. Between 1946 and 1947, Villegas Blanco planned to shoot fictional feature films for commercial theaters, inspired by the model of

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

and Mexican cinema. He hired technical and artistic personnel in these countries, trained Venezuelan personnel, bought new equipment, built a filming studio, and sought out - albeit with little success - national and Latin American distribution and exhibition contracts. The result of this was a variety of films, of varying prestige and quality, made by foreign directors: '' The Demon is an Angel'' (1949,

Carlos Hugo Christensen Carlos Hugo Christensen (15 December 1914 in Santiago del Estero – 30 November 1999 in Rio de Janeiro) was an Argentina, Argentine film director, screenwriter and film producer, an iconic figure of the Golden Age of Argentine cinema, classical ...

), '' The Yacht Isabel Arrived This Afternoon'' (1950, Christensen), '' That's the Woman I Want'' (1950,

Juan Carlos Thorry Juan Carlos Thorry (June 28, 1908, in Coronel Pringles – February 12, 2000 in San Antonio de Padua), born José Antonio Torrontegui, was an Argentine film actor, tango musician and director, notable for his work during the Golden Age of Argen ...

), '' Dawn of Life'' (1950, Fernando Cortés), ''Venezuela también canta'' (1951, Cortés), '' Six Months of Life'' (1951, Víctor Urruchúa), '' Green Territory'' (1952, Ariel Severino and Horacio Peterson), and '' Light in the High Plains'' (1953, Urruchúa). Distribution and exhibition problems made these films commercial failures, with the company continuing to run by producing documentaries, advertisements, and newscasts. The films were more critically successful, with ''The Yacht Isabel...'' winning the Best Cinematography award at the 1951

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

Film Archive

The Cine Archivo Bolívar Films, holds six million feet of film in 35 mm format and over 20,000 film reels, and offers film transfer in various video formats (Betacam, MiniDV, XDCAM, and DVD).

References

External links

Official website

Bolívar Films on IMDb
� {{Authority control Mass media companies established in 1939 Venezuelan companies established in 1939 1942 mergers and acquisitions Film production companies of Venezuela Companies based in Caracas Film archives in Venezuela Film archives in South America