Memorias selectivas: Two Films by Spanish Punk Women

The role of women in Punk has been dominated by a particular doxa and by repeated acts of omission and misrepresentation. This has certainly been the case in much of the historiography and journalism about Spanish Punk/ la Movida, where a more nuanced and rigorous narrative about Punk/la Movida and its women still needs to be created. This article addresses some discourses that dominate the commemorations of the movement and how they interact in the work of two women who were not simply witnesses but took part in the musical scene: Chus Gutiérrez and Beatriz Alonso Aranzába

Spanish cinema of the 2010s: Back to Punk and other lessons from the crisis

This article focuses on how Spanish cinema production has echoed the neoliberal Eurozone crisis of 2008 in mainstream (large and medium size productions), and in its "opposite" the independent sector, and how the effects of the crisis can be glimpsed (within the independent sector) on music (mostly Punk) documentaries which are not ostensibly about the economy, current politics or even the present. I suggest a course through the different ways in which Spanish cinema has been touched by the crisis: through the films of "crisis cinema" to those that focus on the 1980s and early 1990s and its youth led and Punk inspired musical revolutions, via films whose strategy is to address the 2008 to 2017 period in an indirect manner, or to retreat to the pre-2008 past. My ultimate aim is to prove that this seismic change to Spain’s society has forced a re-engagement with the present and the past

Cinema, autoritarismo e política de meios na Argentina: o Festival de Mar del Plata de 1968

Objetivo/contexto: El artículo analiza el proceso de organización del IX Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata de 1968 y su desarrollo. Se reconstruyen los objetivos que la dictadura del general Juan Carlos Onganía persiguió con la realización de este Festival, hasta entonces organizado por entidades privadas, y también se elaboran las tensiones generadas dentro de la alianza del Gobierno y con grupos del campo cinematográfico. Originalidad: Hasta el momento, la historiografía ha hecho énfasis en la fuerte represión cultural de la dictadura de Onganía. Sin negar esta perspectiva, el análisis de esta experiencia de apertura selectiva aporta nuevas ideas para pensar las políticas culturales y de medios de las dictaduras como estrategia de construcción de consenso interno y legitimación del gobierno en el ámbito de las relaciones internacionales, así como su reverso, el campo cultural como territorio de disputas políticas en el marco de gobiernos autoritarios. Metodología: La investigación fue realizada principalmente a partir del análisis de múltiples publicaciones impresas de la época. Conclusiones: El trabajo propone entender esta experiencia cultural como un proceso de apertura selectivo y restringido, orientado a mejorar la imagen en el exterior del Gobierno a través de la cinematografía. Sin embargo, se trató de una experiencia fallida, porque desde el momento en que se desplegó ese objetivo el Festival se politizó y se presentó como un terreno de disputas entre distintas facciones dentro del Gobierno y del Gobierno con el mundo del cine.Objective/context: The article analyzes the organizational process and execution of the IX Mar del Plata International Film Festival of 1968. It outlines the objectives that General Juan Carlos Onganía’s dictatorship pursued with this festival, which had, until 1968, been organized by private entities. The tensions that arose between the government alliance and cinematographic groups is also discussed. Originality: Until now, historiography has emphasized the strong cultural repression of the Onganía dictatorship. Without denying this perspective, the analysis of this selective opening experience at the film festival brings to the fore new perspectives on how dictatorships used cultural and media policies as an internal consensus building strategy and as a tactic to legitimize the government internationally. Conversely, the cultural arena is seen as a territory for political disputes within the framework of authoritarian governments. Methodology: The research was conducted mainly from the analysis of multiple printed publications of the time. Conclusions: This paper proposes understanding this cultural experience as a process aimed at improving the image of the government abroad through cinematography. However, this attempt by the dictatorship failed because, from the moment that the strategy was launched, the festival became politicized and it was transformed into a terrain of disputes between different factions within the government as well as between the government and the world of cinema.Objetivo/contexto: O artigo analisa o processo de organização do IX Festival Internacional de Cinema de Mar del Plata de 1968 e seu desenvolvimento. São reconstruídos os objetivos que a ditadura do general Juan Carlos Onganía buscou com a realização desse Festival, até então organizado por entidades privadas, assim como são elaboradas as tensões geradas dentro da aliança do Governo e com grupos do campo cinematográfico. Originalidade: Até o momento, a historiografia deu ênfase na forte repressão cultural da ditadura de Onganía. Sem negar essa perspectiva, a análise dessa experiência de abertura seletiva traz novas ideias para pensar as políticas culturais e de meios das ditaduras como estratégia de construção de consenso interno e legitimação do governo no âmbito das relações internacionais, bem como o oposto, o campo cultural como território de disputas políticas no âmbito de governos autoritários. Metodologia: A pesquisa foi realizada principalmente a partir do estudo de diversas publicações impressas da época. Conclusões: O trabalho propõe entender essa experiência cultural como um processo de abertura seletivo e restrito, orientado a melhorar a imagem exterior do Governo através da cinematografia. No entanto, tratou-se de uma experiência malsucedida porque, desde o momento em que surgiu esse objetivo, o Festival se politizou, oferecendo-se como um terreno de disputas entre diferentes facções dentro do Governo e do Governo com o mundo do cinema.Fil: Ramírez Llorens, Fernando Matías. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

En un lugar cualquiera de América del Norte: En la carretera transnacional con Isabel Coixet

This book section is a translation into Spanish of an article first published in English in 2006. It looks at the work of Isabel Coixet and her persona as a filmmaker, situating both as part of a phenomenon within Spanish cinema which is old and new at the same time: the movement of its products and talent beyond the national borders and the transnational territories provided by the official languages (the hegemonic Castilian but also Catalan, Basque, or Galician). A 'shared' language,Castilian, and culture have permitted the passage through a transnational super-highway for stars and other cinema professionals among Castilian-speaking communities (...) as part of a cultural and economic strategy that tends to focus on the interests of Spain and Castilian. There is, however, another road only occasionally traveled and this is the one that Coixet has chosen. Some of her films have been conceived and consumed transnationally, shot in English with a mainly Anglo-Saxon cast and set in English-speaking communities (be it North America or the middle of the Atlantic.. These films are thus traveling another road -the road to American cinema. Both Coixet and her oeuvre engage with the demands and strategies of globalization and the attendant issues of space and place, but they can also be read as forms of resistance to narrowly prescriptive ideas of national cinema and labels such as Spanish/ Catalan/ European / Woman filmmaker

Spanish Film Cultures: The Making and Unmaking of Spanish Cinema

The past four decades have seen the Spanish film industry rise from isolation in the 1970s to international recognition within European and World Cinema today. Exploring the cultural and political imperatives that governed this success, this book shows how Spanish film culture was deliberately and strategically shaped into its current form

Film Cultures in Spain's Transition: The “Other” Transition in the Film Magazine Nuevo Fotogramas (1968–1978)

In the story of the fight for democratic freedom and the drive to bring Europe and the world closer to Francoist Spain, Nuevo Fotogramas (NF) deserves a central position. Fuelled by the spirit of May 1968, the long-running Barcelona-based magazine Fotogramas became NF in 1968 and set out to define the pro-democracy struggle in contrast from the Madrid-based film cultures. It also set out to engage with European cultural production as if censorship and being closed off from European modernity were simply temporary situations. NF helps us to write the transition differently, by debunking the myth of its having been a process led solely by the film-makers and critics who engaged in direct confrontation. Explaining the different approach that NF had to documenting and taking part in the cultural industries of the transition helps us to locate resistance in the “trivial” and “female” world of consumption rather than exclusively in the production sector, more often associated with visible and well-documented acts of opposition. Three aspects of the magazine contribute to this reconfiguration of inherited ideas about the transition, particularly the ethos of the publication, the writers who collaborated in it and what seems to be more “marginalia”: its letter section, “El consultorio de Mr. Belvedere”, and its advertisements

Residual Film Cultures: Real and Imagined Futures of Spanish Cinema

During the Zapatero years (2004-2011), film cultures in Spain were subjected to intense media debates around their purpose and funding. This article argues that these years were key to bringing to light certain elements of film cultures that were declining: the models of desirable national films together with the manner in which these were financed and the forms of consumption that are dear to the auteurist cinephiles who make up the bulk of cultural institutions such as the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas. These elements were challenged when non-auteurist film enthusiasts accessed power. It is argued here that these years showed deep weaknesses of the film as art model. In contrast, emergent practices that are linked to transformations of media industries attendant to a market-driven culture, and the increased transnational access to cultural contents on the Internet showed the future

Auteurism and Commerce in Contemporary Spanish Cinema: 'Directores Mediaticos'

This article studies the evolution of auteurism and commerce in Spain using technologies such as the Internet. Spanish directors are becoming mediáticos (media friendly and using media as marketing tools) in response to the new conditions in which the national cinema is immersed among them the saturation in European screens and the ever-present competition with Hollywood. Those directors who can claim the status of auteur do so as part of their commercial strategies. In this analysis of the present-day conditions in the commerce of Spanish cinema, the focus is on two case studies of media-friendly and established auteurs, Isabel Coixet and Álex de la Iglesia who have and manage homepages where information about their work, their careers and other aspects of their authorial personas. Both auteurs can be considered to be at opposite ends of the spectrum genre cinema/art cinema within the Spanish cinema traditions. The questions that inspire this exploration deal with the functions of these homepages and what they can tell us a bout the present and future of film commerce and auteurism in Spain