Bicycle Race at the Arroyo Seco Cycle Track
About Bicycle Race at the Arroyo Seco Cycle Track
Four cyclists round the track at the Arroyo Seco velodrome while the crowd claps. Two women start to cross. The bicycles push them back into the stands. They reach the infield. Two men who had been standing in the center cross the other way and join the audience.
Cast & crew
More about Bicycle Race at the Arroyo Seco Cycle Track
Félix Oliver, a Catalan ship owner, shot the race after buying a camera, a projector, and film in Europe. The track stood at the Quinta de Iglesias, now Agraciada, by Entre Ríos, Zapicán, and San Fructuoso. Most accounts date the film to 1898 and call it the first Uruguayan picture. Juan Pablo Lepra has argued for October 1901 to early 1903, the years sources give for the velodrome being open. It belongs to a group of about ten films Oliver made. The Spanish title is Carrera de bicicletas en el velódromo de Arroyo Seco.
Themes
Background
The reel is counted as the start of filmmaking in Uruguay, made by an immigrant exhibitor who also shot the country's first pictures.
Making
Oliver brought the equipment back from Europe and pointed it at a local track instead of staging a story.
Preservation
The only known copy is held by the Cinemateca Uruguaya. After Oliver's first exhibitions it was not shown publicly again until 1975.
Notes
- Oliver was also the first person to exhibit films in Uruguay.
- After his own screenings the picture was not shown in public again until 1975.
- The only known copy is in the Cinemateca Uruguaya.
- Spanish sources give the length as somewhere between two and four minutes. The English account says four.
Scenes
- Two women step onto the track and the cyclists force them back into the stands.
- The women reach the center. Two men cross out of it and sit with the crowd.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Películas de Félix Oliver.webm)