Keywords:
Brazil, distribution, German cinema, Latin America, Nazi Ideology, Ufa, Ufa Palace
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Abstract
The Ufa, Berlin’s Universum Film AG in Germany, was the only film studio that managed to compete with the big Hollywood studios in the 1920s and 1930s. With 140 branches, agencies, and film theatres worldwide, Ufa was a global player in world cinema. Despite its reputation, little has been written about Ufa’s structure abroad, in places like Latin America for instance. Based on Ufa’s correspondences with its partners and other primary sources, the article presents for the first time a look at Ufa’s various activities in the continent, its distribution strategy, marketing, and the problems Ufa encountered in different Latin American countries. The article will focus particularly on the Brazilian market, where Ufa opened the first UFA-Palácio (Ufa Palace) in 1936, in São Paulo. For Ufa, the palace was to be the beginning of its expansion into the Brazilian market and into South America; but the dream of an Ufa do Brasil ended early with the outbreak of World War II.
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