I was very pleased to receive an email this week from María Luisa Pujol, Director Fundación Aula de Cine Colección Josep M. Queraltó to let me know that Mr. Josep M. Queraltó has been distinguished with the Segundo de Chomón Award from Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España (The Spanish Academy of Motions Picture Arts and Sciences). Josep M. Queraltó will receive the prize next 13th of November at 12:30 at Cinema Academy headquarters (Zurbano, 3, Madrid).
For those of you who don’t know about Josep Queralto or his museum, then below is a trailer from a film about the museum, and so more information on him.
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‘JMQ, a la recerca d’un somni’ versión ampliada from jsbpujol@arrakis.es on Vimeo.
The Catalan Josep M. Queraltó was born in Vallbona de les Monges (Lleida) in 1937. There he worked the lands of his parents during his adolescence. At the weekends he worked as a projectionist in the cinema at Vallbona, just like the actor Philippe Noiret in Cinema Paradiso, a film he greatly admires. Self-taught and always ready to learn, he decided to do a distance-learning course in radio through the Escola Maimó in Barcelona. Queraltó began to earn money repairing radios and other electrical appliances in Vallbona and the surrounding area, a job that he combined with his work as a cinema projectionist. His business expanded and soon he began to manufacture his own radios with kits he ordered from Barcelona; he was so successful that he opened a small branch in each town in the area to pick up the orders. In 1963 he moved to Barcelona, where he made a fresh start. In 1974 he founded Suministros Kelonik with two partners, a company dedicated to the manufacture of film equipment. It was in this context and thanks to his profession that he established contact with companies manufacturing film equipment, photographic laboratories, projection halls and recording studios all over Spain and abroad. Over the past 40 years he has been able to collect, conserve and restore cinematographic materials of great historical value, amassing a magnificent collection which now consists of more than 20,000 carefully classified objects. The pieces he has acquired over these past 35 years include the following: the Lumière brothers’ first film projector, which dates from 1895; several projectors that belonged to Edison, and among these, one for 22 mm film from 1897 and another one for 35 mm film from 1920; a 22 mm film projector from the Pathé house nicknamed Fusil de Marey (The Marey Gun), which was inspired in the machine gun and was able to shoot multiple frames per second; Java and European shadow shows; a magic lantern with three objectives from 1880; hand-painted glass plates with drawings that can be seen when projected on a screen or directly on a wall by the magic lanterns; film posters from different times and countries; books from the early years of the cinema; a gramophone with a shellac disc dating from 1930; several projectors and film cameras with different formats; and pre-cinema objects such as zoetropes, praxinoscopes and kinoras.
Exhibitions
Since 2004 Josep M. Queraltó has organised various cinematography exhibitions so that the entire world may learn about the history of cinema. Under the name “From Shadows to Film”, the first exhibition was held in December 2004 at the Hotel Dolce Sitges, at the same time as the Sitges International Film Festival. The second exhibition, held from 2 February to 26 February 2005 at the Illa Diagonal shopping centre in Barcelona and titled “The History of Cinema”, was the first of the travelling exhibitions that visited different shopping precincts around Spain. The following exhibition was held at the Gran Vía de Hortaleza shopping centre in Madrid, from 24 March to 9 April, with the title “From Shadows to Film”. Later, a special exhibition of “From Shadows to Film” was organised from 3 May to 27 May at the Sala Municipal Sant Joan in Lleida, coinciding with the city festivals. In view of the large number of pieces in the collection, more than 20,000, it was also possible to present a travelling exhibition in Alicante at almost the same time, from 14 to 29 May at the Plaza Mar 2 Shopping Centre. These exhibitions, in the unusual surroundings of shopping centres, were intended to introduce film culture to all the publics.
“From Shadows to Film” arrived in Girona on 23 August, with an exhibition at the Espai Gironès in Salt to be exact, where it remained until 10 September. It then moved on to San Sebastián where it was presented on a larger scale to mark the fifty-third year of the San Sebastian International Cinema Festival, at the Kursaal from 14 to 25 September. Subsequently, and after the great success of San Sebastián, Josep M. Queraltó’s exhibition reached Santander in time for the city’s 250th anniversary. The venue was the exhibition hall at the Nautical Faculty of the University of Cantabria, and the exhibition lasted from 17 to 30 October, coinciding with the celebration of the European Cinema Week and the first short film competition organised by the University of Cantabria.
The last exhibition of “From Shadows to Film” was held at the Gaya Nuño Cultural Centre in Soria, at the same time as the 7th International Short Films Competition, held in Soria from 16 to 30 November. This event made the headlines in Soria’s two main newspapers. Finally, to wind up a busy year, a DVD of Josep M. Queraltó’s exhibition was presented in December in Antarctica. It was projected during the voyage the Hurtigruten company cruise ships made to this region of the world.
In 2006 Queraltó organised various exhibitions: one from 8 to 30 April at the Sala Mozart, in Calella de Mar, during Festimatg, the 
only meeting of 9.5 mm film collectors held in the entire country; and this was followed by participation in the exhibition “Made in Poblenou” in September and, closing the year, an exhibition at the Sala Fortuny in the Centre de Lectura in Reus, during the first Memorimage International
Film Festival. “Films of Today with Images of Yesterday”, from 17 to 30 November.
The Cinèfilm Award
In addition, Josep Maria Queraltó received the Cinèfilm award during the aforesaid Memorimage festival, on 16 November 2006, in recognition of his work in the fields of research, restoration and classification of film heritage. With this final exhibition in Reus, the Queraltó collection completed its tour of all the regions of Catalonia.
In 2007 Queraltó held an exhibition at the Palacio de Congresos in Madrid, from 15 to 21 January, as part of the First International Solidarity Festival of Madrid. And from 20 December 2007 to 28 January 2008, a hundred pieces from the collection were exhibited in the new building attached to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain, where they were a great success with the public.
On April 10, 2008, Queraltó won the Exportfilm award at the first Media Happening Málaga event, in recognition of his promotional work in the exhibition sector.
On 6 May, he returned to the Film Academy in Madrid to present the DVD titled Cazadores de imágenes en la Belle Époque (Image
Hunters in the Belle Époque.), which accompanied the novel El químico de los Lumière: cazadores de colores en la Belle Époque (The Chemistry of the Lumière: Colour Hunters in the Belle Époque), published in Spanish by Algada Editions.
In 2008, Josep M. Queraltó signed an agreement with Caixa Catalunya Obra Social, whereby the financial institution agreed to support a travelling exhibition with pieces from his collection around Catalonia and the rest of Spain during four years. The first exhibition, called “Illusionism and Movement. The Origins of the Cinematograph”, opened on 6 October 2008 in the Mercat Vell building in Sitges, with the collaboration of the town council and coinciding with the Sitges International Film Festival.
The Arús Public Library in Barcelona inaugurated an exhibition of pieces from Josep M. Queraltó’s Collection on 5 March, a sample of the some 20,000 objects that make it one of the largest private cinematographic collections in Europe. The exhibition took visitors on a journey through the history of cinema from its origins to the present day. The exhibition was scheduled to close on 3 April but was extended until 30 April in view of the positive feedback from the public.
Josep M. Queraltó chose the Arús Public Library in view of the historical significance of this Barcelona building and because the library was founded in 1895, the same year as the invention of the cinematograph by the Lumière brothers, which marked the birth of cinema as we know it. The exhibition included shadow puppets from Java, Cambodia, Malaysia and Europe, and also Myanmar puppets. Special mention should be made of a series of pictures hand-painted on glass, the film cameras, a selection of film posters and other objects related to cinema techniques.
For the first time in public, from 17 to 25 April 2009 at the Teatro Cervantes in Málaga, during the Spanish Film Festival, Josep M. Queraltó presented his latest acquisition: the camera used in Buster Keaton’s film The Cameraman, directed by Edward Sedgwick.
The Sant Nitrat Award
Josep M. Queraltó received the Sant Nitrat Award at the X Cinema-Rescat Sant Nitrat Awards ceremony, which took place on 29 June 2009 at the headquarters of the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) in Barcelona. On the same day, the exhibition “Sample of a Dream”, featuring pieces from Josep M. Queraltó’s Collection, was inaugurated at the Tramart exhibition space next to the SGAE building. The exhibition was prolonged through September in view of its success. Visitors included the actor John Malkovich, among other personalities. The second exhibition organised in conjunction with Caixa Catalunya Obra Social was held in the unusual setting of the Valladolid Science Museum, from 16 September to 2 November. Coinciding with the Seminci-Valladolid International Film Festival, two very special cameras from Josep M. Queraltó’s Collection were installed in the foyer of the Teatro Calderón: a camera belonging to Ricardo Baños from 1922 and a prototype 60 mm camera and projector from 1896.
Josep M. Queraltó’s following exhibition, “From Shadows to Film”, was held at the University of Málaga (UMA) from the 17 April to 26 May. In addition, the university published a catalogue that was very highly appreciated by the public.
October 2010 saw the official opening of the Fundación Aula de Cine Colección Josep M. Queraltó (the foundation and cinema school attached to the Josep M. Queraltó collection).
Fundació Caixa Tarragona (following the Caixa Catalunya, Caixa Tarragona and Caixa Manresa merger) presented a new Josep M. Queraltó exhibition in Tarragona from 15 October 2010 to 16 January 2011. On 13 April 2011 Josep M. Queraltó participated in the inauguration of the new seat of the Catalan Film Academy with the exhibition “Barcelona, la façana dels cinemes” (Barcelona, the cinema facade) and the publication of a catalogue with the same title.
On 14 May 2011 in Barcelona, Josep M. Queraltó received the Grand Cross for Humanitarian Merit in recognition of thirty-five years of dedication to the conservation and restoration of film heritage.
On 24 November he exhibited several pieces from the history of television during the World TV Day organised by the Association of Telecommunications Engineers of Catalonia (COETTC) at the auditorium of the Torre BancSabadell.
On 23 January 2012 Josep M. Queraltó was made an honorary member of the Catalan Film Academy in recognition of his long professional career in the field of exhibitions and his work as a collector and cinema restorer during thirtyfive years.
From 7 to 26 February 2012 he presented an exhibition in Granada coinciding with the Classic 26 Retroback International Film Festival. And from 15 March to 15 May 2012 he presented his latest exhibition “Illusionism and Movement: the Origins of the Cinematograph” at the seat of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain in Madrid.
The exhibition Illusion and Motion. From Shadows to Film was presented from 9th October 2012 to 27th January 2013 in Saint Agatha’s Chapel, part of the Barcelona Museum of History, in collaboration with the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB). A Catalan-English bilingual catalogue was published with the same title. Over 30,000 people passed through the exhibition.
Illusion and Motion. From Shadows to Film was presented from 20th March to 5th May in the Sala Montsuar of the Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs (IEI) in Lleida as the Parallel Section of the Catalan Latin-American Film Festival, held from 12th to 19th April. During the Festival’s closing ceremony, on 19th April in the Caixa Fòrum auditorium in Lleida, its director, Juan Ferrer, presented Josep M. Queraltó with a plaque as a tribute for his work of disseminating cinema technology through his collection. The day before, 18th April, the director of photography Tomàs Pladevall was named patron of honour of the Aula Film Foundation, Josep M. Queraltó Collection. The ceremony was held in the exhibition hall.
From 6th to 28th April, Josep M. Queraltó presented the exhibition From Shadows to Film in the multipurpose hall of the Ajuntament Vell in Calella, as part of Festimatge 2013.
On 30th April, Josep M. Queraltó was decorated with the Cross of Saint George in recognition of his professional career and his work as a collector and restorer of a major cinematographic patrimony.
In April he also became a new member of the European Film Academy.
As the result of an agreement between the Catalan Film Academy and the Galician Audio-visual Academy, from 23rd May to 30th June, Josep M. Queraltó took the exhibition Barcelona, a fachada do cinema to the Sala Arte Soado of the Colegio de Fonseca (University of Santiago de Compostela).
The dream of an interactive and educational museum
Josep M. Queraltó’s great passions include painting, sculpture and art in general. He loves manual work, he has a great sense of humour and his favourite artists are comedians. He is a good conversationalist and a family man, and he is always open to new knowledge. The great dream of this tenacious collector, inventor and autodidact is to create an interactive museum that serves as a tool for the preservation of the history of pre-cinema and cinema and at the same time provides a useful educational tool both for those who want to work professionally in this fascinating world and for the general public, so that they can learn about the origins of the magic of cinema.