Luis Manuel Méndez was a Venezuelan businessman and film presenter from the state of Zulia. [1]
Méndez worked as a representative for the American Telephone Company across the west of Venezuela, operating in Maracaibo, San Antonio del Táchira, Cúcuta (in present-day Colombia) and San Cristóbal. [1] Venezuelan film scholar Arturo Serrano, therefore believes that his interest in starting a film business was not new or unexpected when he traveled to New York in 1896. [1] In this capacity, he operated the Maracaibo Telephone Company, opening telephone lines in the city on 5 November 1888 with an initial 50 connected devices. [2]:2021
In 1896, Méndez was tasked with bringing electricity to the state of Táchira, and took a trip to New York City for information. It was while he was in New York that early demonstrations from competing cinema companies took place; Méndez was inspired to get into the business, which he saw to be profitable, and made a deal for distribution rights with the Vitascope across both Venezuela and neighboring Colombia. [3]:42-43 Méndez paid $750 on 10 June, becoming the first foreign deal for the Vitascope; [4] he received Vitascope number 25, and returned to Venezuela later that month. [3]:43
For many years [note 1] records instead indicated that the Vitascope was introduced by contemporary Manuel Trujillo Durán, whom Méndez employed at the time. [7] Though Trujillo, a photographer, had connections to the Edison Company, Méndez had his own with the Kinetoscope Company, which produced and traded the Vitascope. [4] [5] It was later when the travel records of Méndez' visit to the United States were discovered was his role widely acknowledged. [5]
When Méndez brought the technology to Venezuela, it allowed him to show films in the country for the first time; he hired Trujillo to set up a show in Maracaibo, playing four shows over a few days. [3]:42-43 [8] What was thought to be the first film screening in Venezuela was held on 11 July 1896, [3]:43 a fact discovered in documentation found at Harvard in 1991. [9] This show was held in the Baralt Theatre, where the first Venezuelan-produced films would be shown the next year, with tickets costing 1 bolívar in the stalls and 20 bolívares in the balcony. [3]:42-43 However, the Kinetoscope Company had already presented the Kinetoscope in the country in 1895, [3]:42 and shown at least one film, with another report suggesting a film was shown in Venezuela as early as 24 September 1894. [3]:44
However, these did not show the breadth of films Méndez licensed from 1896, nor show them as widely. [3]:44 After the screenings in Maracaibo, Trujillo was put under contract by Méndez to take the projector around Venezuela and Colombia, distributing and marketing films. [8] He originally returned to Maracaibo in November 1896 after touring Venezuela and with a collection of new films that he wished to show, but was sent to Colombia instead. [3]:45
The first film produced specifically for the Vitascope was known as The Monroe Doctrine or the alternate title Venezuela Case in the United States, [note 2] where it was made, and as Alegoría sobre la doctrina de Monroe in Venezuela. [3]:44 The film was a satirical take on the auspices of the Monroe Doctrine, and presented Venezuela in a positive light. [3]:44 [10] The Venezuelan audience were said to be "moved" by the depiction of their complicated political reality on international film. [3]:44
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