PRIMITIVE PATZCUARO, reel 1

Year Published: 1937

Creator: Ralph E. Gray

Description: NOTE: This is reel 1 of 2, and so far we have not located reel 2. "Primitive Patzcauro" is a color film dating to 1937 by Ralph E. Gray that shows Janitzio, a community on Lake Patzcauro, Michoacán, Mexico. The film shows the lake and ts inhabitants, including the Tarascan Indians. Some of the people of Janitzio and the towns surrounding Lake Pátzcuaro are of indigenous descent and are known as Purépecha. The film begins with a visit to the Isla de Janitzio, the largest of five islands in Lake Pátzcuaro. The town of Janitzio, which means "maize flower" in Purépecha, is shown atop a hill on the island (1:18). Note: a 40-meter statue of José María Morelos, a great hero of Mexico's independence, started in 1933, is visible on the island's highest point. The film documents what the town is best known for — fishing. It starts with images of drag net fishing (3:41) before showing the more famous butterfly fishermen, skilled at lowering their butterfly-shaped nets (seen at 5:44) to catch "pescado blanco" (Chirostoma estor). This is a species of freshwater silverside endemic to the lake which is important to the local cuisine. Review from Movie Makers, Dec. 1937: "One comes from a screening of Primitive Patzcuaro, by Ralph E. Gray, with an overwhelming impression of pure beauty. Here, in compositions which often echo the Old Masters in their warmth of color and satisfying balance, an amateur movie maker has turned his camera on the simple life about him and found it pleasing. One after another, the magnificent scenes and sequences bring from the spectator that involuntary expression of deep pleasure which is ambrosia even to the great of amateur movies. In Primitive Patzcuaro, Mr. Gray has portrayed, with leisure, the life of the Tarascan Indians, remote from civilization in a rarely visited section of Mexico. Although magnificent in its color studies, the film is abundant in human interest as well; in portions devoted to the bright native dances and religious ceremonies, it presents a series of tableaux that are breathtaking in their effectiveness." Ralph Grey was a well known, award-winning amateur filmmaker and photographer who was a member of the Amateur Cinema League and Cinema Club de Mexico. Some of his photos reside in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Grey was from Nebraska but moved to Mexico in the 1940s, ended up at the far reaches of Lake Pátzcuaro in the Mexican village of Erongaricuaro, or Eronga for short. He charmed Mexico’s first female mayor and they shortly after married and had two children, Guillermo, who would go on to become a somewhat infamous singer of old Mexican ballads, and the daughter Monica, who, inspired by her father, went to art school in Arizona and became a multi-media artist, for a while dividing her time between Pátzcuaro and the USA. (Details from Escape from America Magazine.)

Complete Record: NOTE: This is reel 1 of 2, and so far we have not located reel 2. "Primitive Patzcauro" is a color film dating to 1937 by Ralph E. Gray that shows Janitzio, a community on Lake Patzcauro, Michoacán, Mexico. The film shows the lake and ts inhabitants, including the Tarascan Indians. Some of the people of Janitzio and the towns surrounding Lake Pátzcuaro are of indigenous descent and are known as Purépecha. The film begins with a visit to the Isla de Janitzio, the largest of five islands in Lake Pátzcuaro. The town of Janitzio, which means "maize flower" in Purépecha, is shown atop a hill on the island (1:18). Note: a 40-meter statue of José María Morelos, a great hero of Mexico's independence, started in 1933, is visible on the island's highest point. The film documents what the town is best known for — fishing. It starts with images of drag net fishing (3:41) before showing the more famous butterfly fishermen, skilled at lowering their butterfly-shaped nets (seen at 5:44) to catch "pescado blanco" (Chirostoma estor). This is a species of freshwater silverside endemic to the lake which is important to the local cuisine. Review from Movie Makers, Dec. 1937: "One comes from a screening of Primitive Patzcuaro, by Ralph E. Gray, with an overwhelming impression of pure beauty. Here, in compositions which often echo the Old Masters in their warmth of color and satisfying balance, an amateur movie maker has turned his camera on the simple life about him and found it pleasing. One after another, the magnificent scenes and sequences bring from the spectator that involuntary expression of deep pleasure which is ambrosia even to the great of amateur movies. In Primitive Patzcuaro, Mr. Gray has portrayed, with leisure, the life of the Tarascan Indians, remote from civilization in a rarely visited section of Mexico. Although magnificent in its color studies, the film is abundant in human interest as well; in portions devoted to the bright native dances and religious ceremonies, it presents a series of tableaux that are breathtaking in their effectiveness." Ralph Grey was a well known, award-winning amateur filmmaker and photographer who was a member of the Amateur Cinema League and Cinema Club de Mexico. Some of his photos reside in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Grey was from Nebraska but moved to Mexico in the 1940s, ended up at the far reaches of Lake Pátzcuaro in the Mexican village of Erongaricuaro, or Eronga for short. He charmed Mexico’s first female mayor and they shortly after married and had two children, Guillermo, who would go on to become a somewhat infamous singer of old Mexican ballads, and the daughter Monica, who, inspired by her father, went to art school in Arizona and became a multi-media artist, for a while dividing her time between Pátzcuaro and the USA. (Details from Escape from America Magazine.)