Emilia Saleny

Emilia Saleny
In the magazine Caras y Caretas in 1915
Born
Josefina Emilia Saleny

(1894-10-16)16 October 1894
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died22 August 1978(1978-08-22) (aged 83)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Occupation(s)Film director, actress, teacher
SpouseAlberto Olivero

Josefina Emilia Saleny (16 October 1894 – 22 August 1978) was an Argentine film director, actress, and teacher.

Biography

Emilia Saleny was born in Buenos Aires on 16 October 1894, the daughter of Antonio Saleny and Italian actress Victoria Pieri.[1][a] Her uncles were also Italian actors. She traveled to Italy in 1910 to study acting, and returned to Buenos Aires at the outbreak of World War I in 1914.[1]

Saleny with graduates from her academy

She worked as an actress at the Teatro Apolo [es] in 1915. She also founded an academy for film acting, which was described as the most serious and reliable of all those in Buenos Aires by critics of the film magazine La Película.[1]

In 1917, Saleny directed the silent films Paseo trágico and La niña del bosque. The latter was aimed at children, and starred students from her academy, including 11-year-old Titi Garimaldi.[2] With these, she became one of Argentina's first women film directors.[b] She has been cited as the forerunner of filmmakers such as María B. de Celestini and Vlasta Lah.[4]

She directed El pañuelo de Clarita [es] in 1919, from a screenplay by Bautista Amé, which was shown in Buenos Aires and Ingeniero Luiggi. She may have also directed Delfina in 1917 and Luchas en la vida in 1919, though her exact role in the productions is unclear.[1]

As an actress, she appeared in the now-lost film El evadido de Ushuaia, directed by Luis Ramassotto, produced by Cóndor Film, and released on 27 December 1916.[5] The same year, she acted in América, directed by Federico Mertens [es], and the following year, Problemas del corazón. She was artistic director of the 1920 play Cantos rodados by Francisco Imhoff.[1]

Emilia Saleny died at her home in Buenos Aires on 22 August 1978.[1]

Filmography

As director

As actress

  • 1916: El evadido de Ushuaia
  • 1917: América
  • 1917: Problemas del corazón

Notes

  1. ^ Some sources give her birthdate as 26 June.[1]
  2. ^ Saleny's Paseo trágico, La niña del bosque, or El pañuelo de Clarita are sometimes listed as the first Argentine film directed by a woman. According to researcher Lucio Mafud, newspapers of the time state that Angélica García Mansilla had directed the film Un romance argentino in 1915.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Fradinger, Moira (2014). "Huellas de archivo al rescate de una pionera del cine sudamericano. Josefina Emilia Saleny (1894–1978)" [Archival Traces to the Rescue of a Pioneer of South American Cinema: Josefina Emilia Saleny (1894–1978)]. Cinémas d'amérique latine (in Spanish and French) (22): 12–23. doi:10.4000/cinelatino.731. Retrieved 2 August 2023 – via OpenEdition Journals.
  2. ^ Levinson, Andrés. Cine en el país del viento [Cinema in the Land of the Wind]. p. 13. Retrieved 2 August 2023 – via Academia.edu. Emilia Saleny poco tiempo después dirigió dos films: La niña del bosque (1917) y El pañuelo de Clarita (1919), ambos films actualmente perdidos.
  3. ^ Pascal, Ana (August 2017). "En busca del cine perdido. Un diálogo con Lucio Mafud" [In Search of Lost Cinema: A Dialogue with Lucio Mafud] (PDF). Arkadin (in Spanish) (6). National University of La Plata: 162. ISSN 2525-085X. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  4. ^ Batalla, Juan (24 January 2018). "Directoras de cine argentinas, el prestigio y la vanguardia de la industria" [Argentine Women Film Directors, the Prestige and Vanguard of the Industry]. Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  5. ^ Levinson, Andrés. Cine en el país del viento [Cinema in the Land of the Wind]. p. 13. Retrieved 2 August 2023 – via Academia.edu. En 1916 se estrena El evadido de Ushuaia de Luís Ramassotto con el propio Ramassotto, Emilia Saleny y Pepita Muñoz. Producida por Cóndor film – primero de muchos comercios filmadores de Ramassotto – se estrenó en el cine Callao en 27 de diciembre.