These past few years documentaries have departed from the strict confines of the art house and entered the mainstream. From “Super Size Me,” to “Capturing the Friedmans,” non-fiction cinema has met with critical and financial success, the likes of which seemed unthinkable in previous decades.
“Documentary filmmakers have become the historians of our time,” said Marta Sanchez, director of Pragda, a cultural initiative promoting Spanish cinema throughout the world. “People don’t read books anymore.”
The UCLA Film & Television Archive’s upcoming series, “DocuSpain,” follows in the wake of this surge in documentary filmmaking. Conceived by Pragda, the series, as its title suggests, will focus solely on works which originate from Spain.
“America is not the only place, obviously, where documentaries are made. So we just wanted to highlight another significant area of documentary production,” said Paul Malcolm, Archive programmer.
Over the course of one month, “DocuSpain” will display six films. The series begins today with Dominique Abel’s “Seville, Southside,” and concludes on Feb. 25 with Fernando Trueba’s “The Miracle of Candeal.” In between, the series will screen Julio Medem’s “The Basque Ball,” Manuel Palacios’ “Bars in the Memory,” Adán Aliaga’s “My Grandmother’s House,” and Marta Arribas and Ana Pérez’s “Memory Train.” All showings begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theatre.
From family travails to Franco’s labor camps, these works cover an extensive range of topics, and touch on complex social, political and cultural themes.
“We have musical films, political films and very personal films,” Sanchez said. “This is a view of what is happening in Spain, in the documentary world.”
Despite the local nature of “DocuSpain,” however, its content is also significant from a worldwide perspective.
“We can always learn something from watching films from another country,” Malcolm said. “This program shows us that we are not the only country dealing with issues of immigration, culture, war and history. It’s a chance for people to see how another nation deals with these kind of issues.”
Indeed, documentaries such as these are not only important in our modern context, but may even prove useful to historians in the years ahead.
The scheduled titles were also selected for the manner in which they use the documentary form, pushing the boundaries of their chosen medium to communicate emotional and intellectual effects. “The Basque Ball” is one such boundary-pushing work. Dealing with the historically violent issue of Basque independence, Medem’s film drew much controversy upon its Spanish release, garnering criticisms from both sides of the argument.
“What’s impressive about this documentary is that it really engages the audience in the moral and ethical questions of national identity, approaches to political solutions of conflict and the role of violence in political conflict,” Malcolm said. “It really doesn’t make any concessions to the audience. It sort of throws us in into a long and tragic history, and it really challenges audiences in a way that I think is just completely fascinating.”
The prerogative when picking out the desired titles to be shown at “DocuSpain” was to stay true to the overriding theme of the series.
“When I was watching the movies, it was pretty obvious which were going to stand out,” Malcolm said. “What I was interested in were films that show the range of approaches that one can take in a documentary.”
Non-fiction cinema has changed and evolved with the times, and the start of the new millennium has signaled a new shift for the entire field.
“The whole idea of what a documentary is, is sort of expanding, and people are taking new chances and tackling new subjects,” Malcolm said.
“DocuSpain” combines art with entertainment, marrying insightful content with a captivating time at the movie theatre.
“By looking at these films, you will understand much better the human experience,” Sanchez said. “It’s the general human experience. It’s not just the Spanish.”