''España 1936'' (
1937
Events
January
* January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
* January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...
) is a Spanish short
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
.
Production
The film was directed by
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Jean-Paul Étienne Dreyfus, better known as Jean-Paul Le Chanois (25 October 1909 – 8 July 1985), was a French film director, screenwriter and actor. His film '' ...Sans laisser d'adresse'' won the Golden Bear (Comedies) award at the 1st ...
and produced and co-written by
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and m ...
, about the early days of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. It contains much genuine
newsreel
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, informa ...
footage. In 1937, Spanish newspaper ''El Sol'' said this of the film:
Although Buñuel made the film in association with the French Communist Party, the film lacks a lot of the overt biases common to political documentaries of this era. Buñuel chronicled this film in his typical style showcasing the inhumanity, death, and destruction of the Spanish Civil War rather than focusing solely on a political message supporting one side or the other. This notable style of Buñuel stands in contrast to other politically based documentaries of the time including ''
Triumph of the Will
''Triumph of the Will'' (german: Triumph des Willens) is a 1935 German Nazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his na ...
'', ''
The Man with the Movie Camera'', and ''
Night Mail
''Night Mail'' is a 1936 British documentary film directed and produced by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and produced by the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit. The 24-minute film documents the nightly postal train operated by the London, Mi ...
'', among others.
See also
*''
The Spanish Earth
''The Spanish Earth'' is a 1937 anti-fascist film made during the Spanish Civil War in support of the democratically elected Republicans, whose forces included a wide range from the political left like communists, socialists, anarchists, to moder ...
''
*''
Spain in Flames''
Further reading
*''Cinema as Political Propaganda during the Spanish Civil War: España 1936'' by Magí Crusells,
University of Barcelona
The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...
, December 2004
PDF download
Sources
External links
*
Documentary films about the Spanish Civil War
1930s Spanish-language films
Spanish short films
Spanish black-and-white films
Films directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois
Spanish documentary films
Black-and-white documentary films
1930s short documentary films
1937 documentary films
1937 films
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