Early memories

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Cine S. Pedro, Calheta, Ponta Delgada .

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Calheta was a small fishing port on the eastern side of the city of Ponta Delgada. Therefore, it was an area of poor people. Nearby was the Hotel da Boa Nova, an ironic name we gave to the city's prison, a 3-story building from the late 19th century.

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Right across from the prison was the Cine S. Pedro , a cinema that always showed two films after they had premiered at the Cine Vitória , a cinema on the other side of town, in a wealthy neighborhood with streets lined with fine houses.

That's where a 6-year-old child went to the cinema for the first time in 1966.

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At home there was no television, as it didn't yet exist in the Azores in the 1960s. Therefore, cinema was a great mystery.

 

And that's where a big misunderstanding began.

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The film told a story set in a puppet theater company. There was a terrible drama, a threat whose details I don't remember. They were puppets operated by numerous vertical strings.

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During the intermission, my father took me by the hand to the projection booth.

 

I saw the enormous projectors and the gigantic reels of film. The projectionist showed me the strips of perforated film and even offered me a piece with two or three frames.

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Right there, the first mystery: how did those machines behind us, in the room full of chairs, make animated images appear on the other side of the room, on a white wall in front of us, when we sat down?

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At the end of the movie, I still remember asking my father, "How did that thing move?"

 

I was obviously referring to the images that appeared on the screen.

 

To which my father replied that they were just some hanging wires.

Of course, my father was referring to the puppets in the film, but my question referred to the images on the screen.

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Finally, I went home fascinated, but completely confused.