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Buenos Aires
Fundación Cinemateca Argentina

Since there is no comprehensive source of information about the Argentine cinema, the Cinemateca Argentina decided to publish a CD-ROM containing historical information on Argentina's national cinema. This CD-ROM, El cine argentino, 1933-1995 contains some six hours of program material in the form of film excerpts and extensive filmographic data on the Argentinean films of the sound period (1933 to 1995). This electronic resource will be indispensable not only for those studying Argentine cinema, but also for those engaged in research into social and political aspects of modern Argentine history. The decision to bypass traditional forms of filmography in favor of the CD-ROM format, which allows quick and flexible access to a large body of data, was based on the desire to create a resource that would take full advantage of the technical capabilities of the new medium. The Cinemateca's intention was to expand the ways that the Argentineans cinema can be appreciated and understood, both in terms of cinema history and as a part of our larger cultural heritage.

El cine argentino uses text data, still and moving images to document 1859 features, including 200 films which have not been released commercially. This documentation includes credits, synopsis, and reviews as well as photos (2800 images) and video clips (28 film clips which amount to 30 minutes of video). The biographical component contains information on 824 actors, producers and other personnel, with their respective filmographies. This section is supplemented by photos, classified by film, which can be used to identify actors and actresses. A special part of the disc is devoted to a history of the main Argentine film studios; another section documents the 554 important awards received by the films of the Argentine sound cinema.

El cine argentino contains 49,750 hypertext links which allow freedom of movement through various parts of the information resource. Highly flexible data retrieval is afforded by numerous points of intellectual access including names, dates, titles and text search capability. This extraordinary resource is the product of a year's labor by seventeen specialists working with cinematographic information collected by the Cineteca.

Paulina Fernandez Jurado



A l'occasion du Centenaire du cinéma, la Fundación Cinemateca Argentina a entrepris la saisie en CD-ROM du cinéma sonore d'Argentine, de 1933 à 1995.

Le public et les chercheurs disposent désormais d'un instrument de référence, réunissant de l'information sur 1859 titres de films distribués dans le pays, 824 biofilmographies de réalisateurs, acteurs, producteurs, scénaristes, directeurs de la photographie, etc. Le CD-ROM contient également l'historique des principaux studios cinématographiques argentins, ainsi que la description de 200 films non sortis dans le circuit commercial, 2800 photographies, ainsi que la liste de 554 prix decernés aux films argentins de la période considérée.