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Cali has Colombia’s first cinematography museum, Caliwood, which was founded in 2008. This museum is packed with a collection of projectors, cameras, movie posters, memorabilia and more. Some of the equipment dates back to the very first days of cinema.
Admission
Caliwood has a general admission price of COP$20,000 (as of April 2023). It takes about 90 minutes to go through on an audio-guided tour.
Tours of Caliwood
For the first part of the tour, a guide gives a quick rundown of what you can see in the museum. Next is an audio guided tour of the entire museum, which can be done in either Spanish or English. It gives a more in-depth look into the history of some of the projectors and other equipment.
It also explains the story behind the cameras, home projectors, and what’s labeled as the world’s largest camera.
Film Presentation
A 20 minute film presentation of clips from some silent films and animated films is then shown followed by a thorough explanation on how sound is connected to film strips. At the end of the tour, guests are given a small filmstrip.
Movie Posters
One of the interesting features of the museum is all of the movie posters on the walls of the museum. The projector room features posters from many American and European films while the rest of the museum has posters from Colombian films.
A section of the wall is dedicated to antique movie posters from the very early days of Colombian film. There’s also stills from the groundbreaking 1922 Colombian movie María. Only 25 seconds of the film have survived.
Conclusion
All in all, it was a very informative visit. If you’re expecting to learn about specific films, actors, or something similar, you will be disappointed because this museum is very big on the technical aspect of filmmaking (although the website has lots of information on Colombian films, actors, and directors). We learned a lot about how the projectors and audio on a filmstrip work along with the history of film equipment.
It’s a very important service for the film industry because other museums about cinema focus on the movies themselves but not the equipment that goes into making or showing them. You will come out with a better understanding of the work behind the scenes and learn more about what goes on in the projector booth when you settle into your seats with a bucket of popcorn.
