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- Title
A Vernacular National Cinema: Amateur Filmmaking in Catalonia (1932–1936).
- Authors
Fibla-Gutierrez, Enrique
- Abstract
This essay argues that the development of amateur cinema in Catalonia in the 1930s is key to understanding the role that film played in Spain’s complex engagement with modernity. I pose amateur cinema as a forgotten avant-garde that spearheaded the emergence of film culture beyond the commercial screen in regions with minor film industries. I examine the particular visual regime fostered by these filmmakers, the distribution of social bodies in their films, and their class-oriented view of reality. I argue that their films embodied the anxiety of a dominant class faced with the reality that public life suddenly had to be shared with the so-called masses who were advancing to the foreground of society. Therefore, I understand the cultural production of Catalan amateurs as a reflection of the archaic class relations that were fueling radicalization in the Spanish sociopolitical realm. The amateur archive is thus a necessary repository to aid our understanding of how moving images became the most widespread form of cultural representation—but also social domination and indoctrination—throughout the twentieth century.
- Subjects
CATALONIA (Spain); AMATEUR films; MODERNITY; FILM archive acquisitions; SPANISH social conditions; TWENTIETH century; HISTORY
- Publication
Film History, 2018, Vol 30, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
0892-2160
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2979/filmhistory.30.1.02