Programme

The last decade has been especially fruitful in the Spanish documentary history. In it, the stigmatized and unknown genre of non-fiction film has been shedding its burden, such as the belief that it is a minor genre and its association with a few standard forms and themes that have been institutionalized by television, the only reference for the spectator up to now. Its invisibility, brought about firstly by the socio-political circumstances and secondly by the absence of references, has marked its erratic, muted, and underpopulated history of documentaries in Spain, with the exception of a few resistance fighters.

The greater visibility of documentary film over the past few years is greatly responsible for its recent boom due to an increase in the training, production, aid polices, greater distribution, dissemination, and the attention of the critics. All of this together has set off a chain reaction allowing documentaries to gain ground in an area that is as soulless as it is unknown through to the end of its first century of life. As a meaningful example, one might point out the absence of a historical overview of documentary film from the 1960s, when El cine documental en España (1960) by José López Clemente was published, through to 2001 with the book Imagen, memoria y fascinación: notas sobre el documental en España, coordinated by Josep Ma Catalá, Josetxo Cerdán and
Casimiro Torreiro, with the collaboration of different experts from the University teaching fields and film critics.

The seminar “History, Analysis, and Perspectives of Documentary Film in Spain”, put on by the DOCUS Madrid association as a parallel activity offers all professionals, students, and the general public interested in documentary film the chance to take a panoramic tour of the history and aesthetics of documentary film in Spain. They will be in the hands of specialists from the genre, who will back up the theoretical lectures of the classes with the viewings and analyses of excerpts from important films in the history of documentary.

Programme and application form (.pdf)

More information:
formacion@docusmadrid.org

Speakers

Josetxo Cerdán
Professor at Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona. Contributor for different film publications. Co-editor of the book Mirada, memoria y fascinación. Notas sobre el documental español, Documental y Vanguardia and Suevia Films: Cesáreo González, treinta años de cine español and Al otro lado de la ficción: trece documentalistas españoles contemporáneos.

Sonia García López
A BA holder in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Valencia, where she presently gives classes on documentary film and is doing her dissertation on the image of the Spanish Civil War in North American Film: 1936-1939. Author of the book Lubitsch. Ser o no ser. She is a member of the editing team of the magazine Archivos de la Filmoteca.

Laura Gómez Vaquero
A BA holder of Art History and Theory and with a Diploma in Advanced Film History Studies from the Autónoma University of Madrid. Member of the editing team of the magazine Secuenciasand collaborator on different specialized publications. She is currently doing her PhD dissertation Memoria e Historia Oral: el documental durante la Transición Democrática, 1973-1981.

Rafael R. Tranche
Full Professor at the Information Sciences Department at Complutense University. Historian and film theorist. Co-author of the book NO-DO: el tiempo y la memoria. Director and screenwriter for advertising, film and television. Director of the short films Mi patio, Puerta del Sol and MarMadrid, the latter of which was nominated for Best Documentary Short Film at the 2003 Goya Awards.

Casimiro Torreiro
He has been professor at the Autónoma University of Barcelona and is currently in the course at the Carlos III University of Madrid. Critic and contributor to numerous film publications. Coordinator of the books Imagen, memoria y fascinación. Notas sobre el documental en España, Documental y vanguardia and Más allá de la ficción. trece documentalistas españoles contemporáneos. Co-director de programación del Festival de Cines del Sur/Festival de Granada.