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Cronica
D'una Mirada: Clandestine Filmmaking in Franco's Spain, 1960
– 1975
Co-presented
by the Department of Hispanic Studies and the Cinema Studies
Program at the University of Pennsylvania
This
six-part documentary series focuses on a generation of independent
filmmakers whose innate unwillingness to conform required them
to produce, distribute and exhibit radical films during Francisco
Franco’s regime. Shooting under the pretense of amateur filmmaking,
they hid within crowds of protesters, producing works that were
often highly creative and even experimental. In order to protect
the identities of its participants, many of these films had
no credits.
While
this body of work represents a margin of Spanish film history,
it nevertheless contains some of the most crucial, first-hand
documents of the end of the dictatorship, revealing problems
of housing and social services, immigration, the fate of political
prisoners and restrictions on expression and free speech. These
films explore an era that fought for freedom through cinema.
Curated
by Marta Sanchez and Manuel Barrios. Special thanks to Bryan
Cameron and Anna Cox of the Department of Hispanic Studies at
the University Of Pennsylvania and Charlotte Nitta Cargni.
And to Michael Solomon and Toni Esposito of the Department of
Romance Languages at Penn, for their extraordinary efforts in
subtitling the short films contained in the Cronica series.
Wednesday,
October 28, 2009
Part
I: Good Manners
dir.
Manuel Barrios, Spain, 2004, DVD, 44 mins, color and b/w, Catalan
and Spanish w/ English subtitles
Apart
from professionals, owning a film camera at the end of the 50s
was a privilege enjoyed by relatively few and used primarily
for travel and family. People who were passionate about film
went to the movies or created a cinema club. However, there
was a shift that occurred when amateurs created stories with
intent and when cinema clubs where used to talk about more than
just films. Good Manners and accompanying shorts reflect
on amateur films that dared to explore what was not permitted,
that try to investigate the day-to-day morality of the time.
followed
by
Happy
Parallel (El Alegre Paralelo)
dir.
Enric Ripoll and Josep-Maria Freixes Ramon, Spain, 1964, DVD,
28 mins, b/w
The
film reveals the daily life of the popular Barcelona neighborhood
of Parallel, reflecting prostitution, nightlife and all it encompasses.
A
Good Friday (Un Viernes Santo)
dir.
Joan Gabriel Tharrats, Spain, 1960, DVD, 26 mins, b/w
When
it was produced, A Good Friday was considered quite
controversial and actually
forbidden by the regime and shown only in cinema clubs.
Aspectes
i Personatges de Barcelona 1964
dir.
Carles Barba, Spain, 1975, DVD, 25 mins, b/w, Catalan w/ English
subtitles
Using
footage centering on Barcelona, these images and accounts have
now become outstanding documents of the period.
Wednesday,
November 25, 2009
Part
II: Notes on Emigration
dir.
Manuel Barrios, Spain, 2004, DVD, 44 mins, color and b/w, Spanish
w/ English subtitles
The
motion picture camera ceased to be innocent as more and more
disquieting images were captured through its lens, such as the
river of people that where ejected out of the train onto Franca
station in Barcelona. These were people trying to leave the
poverty of the countryside behind but instead ended up in city
slums. Within Franco’s regime, this was viewed merely as the
price of progress. For filmmakers at this point, it was not
just about trying to make the spectator think or be surprised
by a curious image, but about trying to mobilize people to stand
up against authority.
followed
by
No
se Admite Personal (Plaza de Urquinaona)
dir.
Antoni Lucchetti, Spain, 1968, DVD, 15 mins, b/w, Spanish w/
English subtitles
Spain’s
rural population rose in the earliest hours to board buses
for the center of Barcelona where they waited for unscrupulous
employers to find them as cheap labor, without contracts,
agreements or social security.
Field
for Men (El Campo para el Hombre)
dir.
Helena Lumbreras and Maria Lisa, Spain, DVD, 1974, 49 mins,
b/w, Spanish w/ English subtitles
Featuring
two extremes of agricultural property in the Galician and Andalusia
regions and clearly critical of the living conditions of the
farmers, the film represents the work of the only women directors
making these clandestine movies.
52
Sundays (52 Domingos)
dir.
Llorenc Soler, Spain, 1967, DVD, 27 mins, b/w, Spanish w/ English
subtitles
With
breathtaking expressiveness, eloquence and raw and honest testimony
about the world of bullfighting, this work chronicles the misadventures
of young people seeking better lives by becoming matadors, the
only way to break free of their social stratum. 52 Sundays
is considered among the best films of the world of bullfighting.
Wednesday,
December 16, 2009
Part
III: Clandestine Networks
dir.
Manuel Barrios, Spain, 2004, video, 44
mins, color and
b/w, Spanish w/ English subtitles
The
film camera was now a political instrument. Police used confiscated
films to identify possible suspects. Therefore it was better
if credits did not appear on the prints and to interview people
in silhouette, or if possible, frame the interviewee from the
neck down. A clandestine distribution network was created where
the films were given false names, stored in private homes, catalogued
into lists camouflaged among medieval poetry texts, and later
distributed to interested parties under total secrecy and anonymity.
Footage of demonstrations, strikes and other actions was distributed
by clandestine networks known as “Volti”.
followed
by
Paris,
20 de juny de 1971 Mitin en Montreuil
dir.
Anonymous, Spain, 1971, video, 106 mins, b/w, Spanish w/ English
subtitles
On
June 20, 1971, a massive political gathering led by Dolores
Ibarruri and Santiago Carrillo took place in the village of
Montreuil, near Paris . The filmed demonstration was distributed
and screened clandestinely. The film reveals itself, now, as
a tool for reflection on the political history and the changes
produced in the Spanish State by the second President of the
government.
Wednesday,
January 27, 2010
Part
IV: Fight Partners
dir. Manuel Barrios,
Spain, 2004, video, 44 mins, color and b/w, Spanish and/or Catalan
w/ English subtitles
This episode focuses
on the film El Sopar, shot on the same night in 1974
that the militant anarchist Salvador Puig Antich was executed,
and on its director, Pere Portabella. In those days, Portabella
was the bridge between PSUC (Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya
or Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia) and the “Volti” structure.
El Sopar documents the meeting of a group of former political
prisoners at a remote farmhouse far outside of Barcelona. They
talk and meditate about their experiences. 30 years later, a
documentary crew revisits the farmhouse, bringing Portabella
along to record his recollections.
followed by
La Censura del
Franquismo
dir. Manuel Esteban,
Spain, 1971, video, 29 mins, b/w, Spanish and/or Catalan w/
English subtitles
La Censura del
Franquism is told by those who convey the existence of
censorship and how they suffered through the repression of the
freedom of expression during the pro-Franco regime.
Wednesday,
February 24, 2010
Part V: New Wind
dir. Manuel Barrios,
Spain, 2004, DVD, 44 mins, color and b/w, Spanish and/or Catalan
w/ English subtitles
After the events of May,
1968 and the terrorist attack against Carrero Blanco, the political,
social and even psychological situation in Spain changed dramatically.
This was reflected in the independent cinema of that time. But
it wasn’t until directors like Antoni Padros, a filmmaker of
unclassifiable aesthetics and extreme creativity, or Jose Maria
Nunes, a Portuguese filmmaker working in Barcelona, that new
styles and techniques emerged and a sense of relative freedom
arose, if only formally.
followed by
Sexperiencias
dir. Jose Maria Nunes,
Spain, 1969, video, 92 mins, b/w, Spanish and/or Catalan w/
English subtitles
Sexperiencias
deals with the reactions of an elderly man and a young girl
at the news that appeared in the press in 1968, an intercession
that weaves political struggle and the anguish of love. Formally
risky, Nunes’ work was shot without dialogue, resulting in haunting
vocal synchronicities in the dubbing, mixed with perfectly synchronized
sound.
Dafne i Chloe
dir. Antoni Padros,
Spain, 1969, video, 23 mins, b/w, Spanish and/or Catalan w/
English subtitles
A pair of girls plays
a game. When it reaches its conclusion, the game has and says
things that have the possibility of anarchy.
Wednesday,
March 31, 2010
Part VI: The
End of the Tunnel
dir. Manuel Barrios, Spain, 2004, DVD, 44 mins, color and
b/w, Spanish w/ English subtitles
Introduced by
Sara Nadal-Melsio, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages
at the University of Pennsylvania
This segment explores the final period of the Franco years,
with all the unsteadiness, fears and hopes afflicting the society
reflected in its independent cinema. Two young journalism students,
Bartolomeu Vila and Simo, produced Entre la Esperanza y
el Fraude (1974), the first film to explain the Second
Republic and the Civil War from a perspective that differed
from the official one. Clips in this episode include Alborada
(1975-1976) by Joan Mallarch and Lluis Garay, Testamento
(1977) by Joan Marti Valls and Votad, votad, malditos (1977)
by Llorenc Soler.
Votad, votad, malditos
dir. Llorenc Soler,
Spain, 1977, 23 min, DVD, Spanish and Catalan w/ English subtitles
In 1977 Llorenc Soler,
an independent documentary filmmaker from Valencia, took to
the streets to document the emotion and commotion leading up
to Spain’s first elections following the death of Francisco
Franco. Part journalism, part documentary, Votad, votad,
malditos captures the lively atmosphere immediately prior
to the elections.
Hic Digitur Dei
dir. Antoni Marti
i Gich, Spain, 1976-77, 85 mins, DVD, Spanish and Catalan w/o
English subtitles
Written by the celebrated
Catalan author Quim Monzo and his collaborator, Roser Fradera,
Hic Digitur Dei is a decadent musical set in the last
days of Franco's dictatorship. Staring Rosa Novell, Pep-Maur
Serra, Xabier Elorriaga, Maruja Torres, Montserrat Carulla,
Alfred Luchetti, among others.
Trained as a comparatist
in 19th- and 20th-century European literatures, Sara Nadal-Melsi
is committed to an interdisciplinary and transnational approach
to the cultural productions of contemporary Spain. Nadal is
the co-author of Alrededor de: periferias (Gustavo
Gili, 2002), a book on emergent discourses surrounding
the "periphery" as a social space. She is currently working
on The Decays of Realism: A Negative Genealogy, a book
manuscript that examines the strategic centrality of realism
as a target and calls for a reassessment of its epistemological
discourse. Article-length projects include the role of the documentary
in Surrealism and representations of the insurrectional city.
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