Cinema of Paraguay

The cinema of Paraguay has historically been small; however, this has begun to change in recent years with films like El Toque del Oboe (1998), María Escobar (2002), O Amigo Dunor (2005) which competed for Best Movie in the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and Hamaca Paraguaya (2006), which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, gaining critical acclaim both in Paraguay and abroad; 7 cajas (2012), Latas Vacías (2014), and Luna de Cigarras (2014).

History

The first films shot in Paraguay were a series of silent shorts by Argentine director Ernesto Gunche in 1905. The first Paraguayan-made film was Hipólito Carrón's 10-minute-long silent film Alma Paraguaya, made in 1925. He went on to make a number of short documentaries with his nephew and assistant cameraman Agustín Carrón Quell. A handful of documentaries were filmed in the country over the next few decades, though most of these are now lost. The 1932 documentary En el Infierno del Chaco by the Argentine Roque Funes was the first film shot in Paraguay to use sound.

Paraguay

Coordinates: 23°S 58°W / 23°S 58°W / -23; -58

Paraguay (/ˈpærəɡwaɪ/; Spanish: [paɾaˈɣwai]; Guarani: Paraguái [paɾaˈɣwaj]), officially the Republic of Paraguay (Spanish: República del Paraguay, Guarani: Tetã Paraguái), is a landlocked country in central South America, bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the country from north to south. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de Sudamérica ("Heart of South America").

The indigenous Guaraní had been living in Paraguay for at least a millennium before the Spanish conquered the territory in the 16th century. Spanish settlers and Jesuit missions introduced Christianity and Spanish culture to the region. Paraguay was a peripheral colony of the Spanish Empire, with few urban centers and settlers. Following independence from Spain in 1811, Paraguay was ruled by a series of dictators who generally implemented isolationist and protectionist policies.