Salvador Toscano

Salvador Toscano Barragán (22 March 1872 – 14 April 1947), also known as Salvador Toscano, was a director, producer and distributor of early Mexican cinema films.^[1] He was Mexico's first filmmaker.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Biography

Toscano was born in 1872 in Guadalajara, Jalisco.^[1][2] He began studying to become a mining engineer, however changed his career to become a filmmaker.^[2][3] He used a Cinematograph camera and projector which was first introduced in France in 1895.^[2] It was introduced into Mexico a year later when the first presentation of film in Mexico was made on 15 August 1896.^[2][5]

Toscano opened Mexico's first public movie theatre at 17 Jesús María Street in Mexico City in 1897.^[2][7][8] In the public theater he showed such famous early films as The Great Train Robbery, A Trip to the Moon, and The Kingdom of the Fairies. ^[2]

Toscano began his movie career by filming local scenes in Mexico and local news events.^[2][3][5] Some early short film titles of these, made in 1896 and 1897, were Men in Scuffle on the Main Square and Rural Police Riding Their Horses.^[5]

Toscano began full length production filming in 1898, directing and producing his own movies.^[2][3] They were mostly documentaries pertaining to Mexico.^[2][3] Toscano was the producer of the first full length film in Mexico.^[2][3][6][7] It was fiction based on the play Don Juan Tenorio.^{[2][3][4][6][9]} The film was made in 1898 starring the Mexican actor Paco Gavilanes.^[2][6]

Toscano was a documentary filmmaker mostly however. He filmed on the Mexican Revolution and most of his movie making was on this subject.^[2][3]

Toscano had a rival named Enrique Rosas who also produced films in Mexico at the same time.^[5] Many movie theaters had been constructed by 1902 in Mexico City and within a few years many more were spread throughout Mexico. ^[5] Toscano's last film was shot in 1921.^[2]

Toscano's daughter Carmen took many scenes of his Mexican revolutionary documentary films and reintroduced it under the title of Memorias de un Mexicano (Memoirs of a Mexican) in 1950.^{[2][3][4][5][10]} The scenes were filmed by Toscano between 1897 and 1923. Much of the footage was about President Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary events of his reign.^{[2][3][5][7][10]} The reintroduced film was 100 minutes long and premiered 24 August 1950.^{[2][3][5][10]}

One of the propaganda "photo-ops" Toscano made of Díaz was called General Díaz on a Stroll Through Chapultepec Park.^[5] Toscano also made documentary films of Díaz's grand celebration of Mexico's first one hundred years of independence.^[5]

Since 1982 the movie industry of Mexico has awarded the Salvador Toscano Medal in recognition of outstanding contribution to Mexican cinematography.^[11]

References

• Lopez, Ana, "Early Cinema and Modernity in Latin America", Cinema Journal, 40.1 (2000), pp. 48–78.
• Michel, Manuel, "Mexican Cinema: A Panoramic View", Film Quarterly, July 1965, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 46–55.
• Herbert, Stephen et al., Who's Who in Victorian Cinema: A Worldwide Survey, BFI 1996, ISBN 0-8517053-9-1
• Nicholson, Irene, "Mexican Films: Their Past and Their Future", The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television, April 1956, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 248–252

Notes

Bibliography

• BETHELL, Leslie, The Cambridge History of Latin America, Cambridge University Press 1995, ISBN 0-5212322-5-2
• CIUK, Pearl. (2000). Diccionario de directores del cine mexicano . (2000). Dictionary of directors of Mexican cinema. México: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) y Cineteca Nacional. Mexico: National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta) and Cineteca Nacional. ISBN 9-7018559-0-6
• DÁVALOS Orozco, Federico (1996). Albores del cine mexicano . Davalos Orozco, Federico (1996). Albores of Mexican cinema. ISBN 9-6869324-5-3
• JASZCZAK, Sandra, Awards, Honors & Prizes: International and Foreign 1996-97, Gale Group 1996, ISBN 0-8103917-5-9
• NOBLE, Andrea, Mexican national cinema, Routledge 2005, ISBN 0-4152301-0-1
• RAAT, Dirk, Twentieth-century Mexico, University of Nebraska Press 1986, ISBN 0-8032891-4-6
• RAMÍREZ, Gabriel (1989). Crónica del cine mudo mexicano . Ramirez, Gabriel (1989). Chronicle of Mexican silent film. ISBN 9-688054-1-6-X
• REYES, Aurelio de los (1983). Cine y sociedad en México 1896-1930: vivir de sueños . Reyes, Aurelio de los (1983). Cinema and society in Mexico 1896-1930: live dreams. Vol. Vol. 1. 1. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. ISBN 9-6836312-5-8
• STANDISH, Peter et al., Culture and customs of Mexico, Greenwood Publishing Group 2004, ISBN 0-3133041-2-2
• VARIOS (1996). Salvador Toscano: 1872-1947. Pionero del cine nacional. Pioneer of national cinema. México: Comité para la Conmemoración de los Cien Años del Cine Mexicano. Mexico: Committee for the Commemoration of the Hundred Years of Mexican Cinema. Folleto del homenaje a Salvador Toscano con motivo del Centenario del Cine Mexicano. Brochure tribute to Salvador Toscano to mark the centenary of the Mexican Cinema.
• VIÑAS, Moisés (1992). Índice cronológico del cine mexicano (1896-1992) . Vine, Moses (1992). Chronological index of Mexican cinema (1896-1992). México: Dirección General de Actividades Cinematográficas de la UNAM. ISBN 9-6836248-7-1