The goal is to compile all available information—technical, visual, etc.—on films produced in Uruguay since 1899, as well as on the people behind them. The website, which is scheduled to launch by the end of the year, will be open to the public.
The project was presented on April 12 as part of the 35th Uruguay International Film Festival. The project leaders are Clara von Sanden—historical research coordinator—and Juan Andrés Belo, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication with a focus on Audiovisual Studies and is a professor at the School of Communication—project coordinator. Cinedata.uy received 200,000 pesos from the 2015 Competitive Grants for its implementation.
In this interview, Belo explains the importance of the platform in creating a comprehensive database available to the public, as well as in dispelling stereotypes about “Uruguayan cinema.”
What is Cinedata today, and what does it aim to become once it goes live?
Today is an ongoing cultural project. We are gathering technical, visual, and journalistic information about Uruguayan films. By the end of the year, when it goes live, it will be the first public database of Uruguayan films, as well as the professionals and technicians who made them possible.
How did you meet Clara von Sanden, and how do you complement each other in the work you’re doing?
Clara Von Sanden was one of the researchers who contributed to the reports on the national film heritage prepared by Isabel Wschebor, Ana Laura Cirio, and Julieta Keldjian for the ICAU. She’s from my generation, understands how these kinds of projects work, and loved the idea, so as soon as we met, it was clear that we had to work together. We get along great and complement each other because she’s very thorough as a historian and researcher; she knows how to identify valuable data and where to look for it.
My contribution is more focused on film, connections with people in the industry, specialized literature, and specific terminology. That said, when it comes to films made before 1980, I play a supporting role; she coordinates the researchers for that period in accordance with the objectives I outlined in the overall project.
We are currently working together to prepare a series of interviews to gather firsthand information from certain experienced professionals.
How long have you been working on this, and what has the process been like?
We've been working on this since mid-2016, not counting the initial draft I put together when I launched the project in 2015. Everything is going smoothly.
How much material are we talking about?
In this initial phase, which will run through the middle of the year, we are gathering information on some 300 films from 1929 to the present. We’ve already begun to uncover valuable filmographies that may not be as widely recognized, posters that hadn’t been digitized, and amusing or revealing press clippings. There’s a lot of information out there, but it’s scattered.
Although the project isn't finished yet, what is your assessment of the progress made so far, and why is this platform important?
Gathering this scattered information, digitizing it, and making it publicly available is crucial for fostering reflection and research on cinema in our country. Furthermore, information technology allows us to cross-reference this information in powerful ways that would not have been possible had it not been digitized.
Seeing this information compiled will make it clearer just how professional the sector is—something we’re not always fully aware of—and how many people work in this field.
And finally, “Uruguayan cinema” is rife with prejudices, myths, and misconceptions… For example, the idea that “all Uruguayan films are the same” is utter nonsense. I believe that making this information public also helps to demystify “Uruguayan cinema” and present it more as a fact than as an idea.
They plan to introduce a collaborative feature so that users can edit and improve the content.
This is a key component of the project. It would take a lot of resources for a research team to gather all the information. These projects rely on collaboration to achieve a meaningful scale. We’re still figuring out how it will be implemented, but that component will definitely be part of it.
Presentation of the Cinedata.uy platform
Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 7:00 p.m., Spanish Cultural Center, free admission.