Eugène Py Explained

Eugène Py
Birth Date:	19 May 1859
Death Date:	26 August 1924

Eugène Py (19 May 1859 – 26 August 1924) was an early French cameraman, cinematographer and film director. Py is widely considered the founding pioneer of the cinema of Argentina.^[1]

Life and career

Born in Carcassonne, Py moved to Buenos Aires in the late 1880s.

Py's early films included Visita del Dr Campos Salles a Buenos Aires (1900) (the first Argentine documentary), and La Revista de la Escuadra Argentina and Visita del general Mitre al Museo Históric (1901).^[2] Py introduced the concept of recording history in the making in Argentina, by filming the arrival of the Brazilian president at the time accompanied by the Argentine president,^[3] and filming Alberto Santos-Dumont during a small recording that went on to capture what is probably the first "gag" in the country's history (a third man kept standing between Py and Dumont, interrupting the film, until he received a spit in the face, upon which recording finished).

Py was one of the Lumière brothers' "operators".^{[4] [5]}

He died in 1924 in San Martín, Buenos Aires.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Who's Who of Victorian Cinema . 2023-09-09 . www.victorian-cinema.net.
2. Web site: Things you should know about....Argentine Cinema Latinolife . 2023-09-09 . www.latinolife.co.uk.
3. Book: Stock, Ann Marie . Framing Latin American Cinema: Contemporary Critical Perspectives . 1997 . U of Minnesota Press . 978-0-8166-2973-2 . en.
4. Book: Rist, Peter H. . Historical Dictionary of South American Cinema . 2014-05-08 . Rowman & Littlefield . 978-0-8108-8036-8 . en.
5. Book: Rossell, Deac . Chronology of the Birth of Cinema, 1833–1896 . 2022-10-18 . Indiana University Press . 978-0-86196-964-7 . en.