Máximo Calvo Olmedo

Born in Bercianos del Real Camino Francés (province of León, Spain), Calvo Olmedo left his hometown at the age of 17 to travel to America in search of opportunities. After touring several countries, he decided to settle in Balboa, Panama, where he worked as a painter and photographer, trades he had learned in his homeland. The details of his apprenticeship in art and filmmaking are not known; however, it is known that in America he had the opportunity to handle film cameras, which were handled only by experienced photographers. In addition to working for some years as a photographer, Olmedo also worked as a distributor for 20th Century Fox in Balboa, a production company with which he filmed the War between Panama and Costa Rica (1918). After living in Panama for 19 years, Olmedo traveled to Cali in 1921 with the purpose of directing the film María, a milestone in Colombian film history. As the first silent film made in the country, María was shown to great acclaim at the Teatro Salón Moderno in Cali. The film, which was based on the novel of the same name María by Cali writer Jorge Isaacs, raised a large sum of money, which allowed it to be successfully distributed in Mexico and Argentina. The film was shown two years later at the great Salón Olympia in Bogotá; however, it went unnoticed by the press, which focused on La tragedia del silencio, a film that was advertised as authentically Colombian'. In spite of this, María will always be recognized as the precursor film of n…