1950 Bogotá, Colombia

Ines Elvira Aparicio

Born in 1944

Bogotá, Colombia

Interviewed on February 8th, 2023

by Alejandro Gonzalez

When I was a little girl, my mom used to own an 8mm film projector. She would screen movies for my siblings and I, and that became my first introduction to the world of film.

Whenever it was one of our birthdays and we would have a party, part of the entertainment was always to put on a movie. This is because back then it was a novelty. Most homes didn’t have a film projector, and theaters didn’t exist yet in Bogotá. The only way to see a movie was through the local parish. So having a film projector was very advanced for the time. I remember whenever my cousins would come over, they would ask to put on a movie.

The movies themselves had to be brought from the United States, since they didn’t sell them here yet. My mom would buy the movies, which mostly featured Chaplin from what I remember. I must have been five or six years old during that time.

I mostly remember Chaplin’s acting because it was very exaggerated. Since the movies were silent and he didn’t have any other means of communicating aside from his body language, it was all very exaggerated. And I remember his costume very well, with his bowler hat, his cane, his oversized shoes, and his wide pants. The character stays pretty much the same in all the movies that I remember seeing. And he would gesticulate a lot, and move his hands around, and walk around all quick and funny. I also remember the expression of his eyes very well. I would look and look at him because his eyes said everything.

 In terms of the plots of the stories, I know they were mainly just comedy. One would generally laugh at Chaplin’s movies. But the actual storylines are hard to remember.

The first movie where I actually remember the story would be the Wizard of Oz, which I saw at the local parish.  I really liked it because of the fantasy in the movie. It’s not something that can be explained very easily. As a child, watching the movie felt fantastical, like a dream. So I didn’t know whether what I was watching was real or not.

I remember very well that after finishing the movie I went to ask my mom all these questions because I didn’t understand how everything that I saw could be possible. So then she had to watch the movie as well to be able to answer all of my questions.

My favorite character would have to be the Wizard. He really interested me, and the Munchkins as well. I loved how the Wizard would surprise the Munchkins and the Munchkins would surprise the Wizard. They had a very fun relationship. 

I also really liked that the movie has a happy ending. That’s something that I really like in film. I don’t like movies that end badly or that have a sad ending, just like I don’t like it when the World Cup ends with penalties.

The parish itself didn’t offer food or anything like the theaters nowadays. They would set up the movie in a large hall with seats all on the same level. So if you were really short you would have to kneel on your seat in order to see. The priests would set up the projector in there and use what I think was 16 mm film.

My sister Maria Isabel is the one who would take us to see the movies at the parish. It was extremely cheap, around 5 cents each, so she could take all of my siblings. Some of us were a little younger than the others, so if it was a horror movie she would cover our eyes. But of course we would try to look between her fingers to see what was happening. Then we would get home, and my mom would scold Maria Isabel for taking us to see those types of movies. So yeah, it was really my sister that introduced us to the world of cinema.