Eugène Py

Eugène Py, Hispanized as Eugenio Py, was a French-born Argentine cameraman, cinematographer and film director. Py is widely considered the founding pioneer of the cinema of Argentina.

Life and career

Born in Carcassonne, Py moved to Buenos Aires in the late 1880s.
Py's early films included Visita del Dr Campos Salles a Buenos Aires, and La Revista de la Escuadra Argentina and Visita del general Mitre al Museo Históric. Py introduced the concept of recording history in the making in Argentina, by filming the arrival of the Brazilian president at the time accompanied by the Argentine president, and filming Alberto Santos-Dumont during a small recording that went on to capture what is probably the first "gag" in the country's history.
Py was one of the Lumière brothers' "operators".
He died in 1924 in San Martín, Buenos Aires.