María (1922) watch online

María is a 1922 Colombian silent film in black and white, directed by Máximo Calvo Olmedo and Alfredo del Diestro.

It was the first feature-length fiction film made in Colombia, and is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jorge Isaacs. It tells the story of the love affair between Efraín, the son of a wealthy hacienda owner, and his first cousin María. While most sources claim that the initiative to produce María came from the Franciscan priest Antonio José Posada, others indicate that the idea came from Alfredo del Diestro. Shooting began in October 1921, and took place in some of the same locations as the novel, including the hacienda El Paraíso. The feature film premiered on October 20, 1922 in Buga and Cali.

The film was at the center of what is considered the first copyright controversy in the Colombian film industry, when the Isaacs family filed a lawsuit against Valley Film, the film's production company, which the latter won. The controversy led to the film being banned by local authorities from screening in several Colombian cities, but the legal case also served as additional publicity for the film, which broke box-office records in Colombia.

It was the only Colombian film at the time to be shown in national cinemas for several years. While the film was a success domestically, it was a failure abroad. The positive reception and commercial success of María gave a boost to Colombian film production, with other producers producing some twenty films during the silent era.

Despite its importance, no copies of the film have survived; only a 25-second fragment has been preserved, along with dozens of stills. A short documentary, En busca de María, was made in 1985 by Luis Ospina and Jorge Nieto, with the aim of retracing the history of the making of María.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)