The Forgotten Spanish Non-Fiction Cinema and Its Renewal: This is (Also) Spain!

This is the unknown side of Spain that the dictatorship’s propaganda sought to hide in order to promote tourism, the flip side of the popular images of sun, paella, sangria, and beaches. A national wound that still festers. An eternal suspicion of the other. An eternal pain…

José Val del Omar AGUAESPEJO GRANADINO (1955, 23 minutes, 35mm)
Velasco Broca VAL DEL OMAR FUERA DE SUS CASILLAS (2010, 6 minutes, video)
Luis Buñuel LAND WITHOUT BREAD / LAS HURDES, TIERRA SIN PAN (1932, 27 minutes, 35mm)
Óscar Pérez IF THE CAMERA BLOWS UP (2008, 12 minutes, video)
Valeriano López ME DUELE EL CHOCHO (2002, 4 minutes, video)

Spanning four decades of Spanish non-fiction cinema, this series highlights the connections between generations, but also the abyss that exists because of the political history of this land. This array of portraits and explorations depicting collective and individual identity generates a vivid dialogue between works from the past – by filmmakers including Luis Buñuel and José Val del Omar – and a new generation that is working with a radically new digital language.