Featured Video: Watson Kintner’s Travelogue of Mexico (1930s)

"Keep that 16mm camera on Diego Rivera's handsome face," says Diego Rivera.

There are tons of great videos on the Internet Archive, including the travelogues of Watson Kintner (1890-1978), a chemical engineer at RCA by trade who sojourned extensively and had a knack with a 16mm camera. The kind folks at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology have preserved the movies and shared them online. The particular film I’m linking to in this post is of a vibrant-looking Mexico in either 1933 or 1934. Although most of the people Kintner recorded on his trip were unknown locals, look for the scene of Diego Rivera standing alone in a room. The video embed is causing me havoc, so I have to redirect you to the official site to watch the 7-minute film.

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