Spain 36 | Espana 36
Jean-Paul Le Chanois, produced by Luis Bunuel for Subsecretaria de Propaganda, 1936, 35 min, in Spanish
In September 1936, the Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs entrusted Luis Bunuel with promoting the Republican cause at the Spanish Embassy in Paris. During this period he was in charge of film programming for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Universal Exhibition and also produced Espana 36. As a montage of documents, photos and footage by various cameramen, the film avoids any revolutionary position in order to oppose the democracies' "non-intervention" in the Civil War and to expose the interventionism of the German and Italian dictatorships. The film focused on the "Republic at work", continuing to resist (the Battle for Madrid and Dolores Ibarruri's visit to Paris), and welcoming the International Brigades. To speak more effectively to the French public, the film concludes: "Madrid has become the European Verdun" and calls for the end to a war that threatens peace in our time.

Heroic Spain (Images of the Spanish Civil War) | Espana Heroica (Estampas de la guerra Civil espanola)
Joaquín Reig, Paul Laven, Fritz C. Mauch, Germany-Spain, 1938, 86 min, in Spanish
Joaquín Reig was sent to Berlin in the first year of the war by the Nationalist camp to carry out propaganda- related tasks. He worked primarily with newreel material made by German cinematographers but also used material produced by the Republican side or their allies, including footage confiscated by the German authorities from planes preparing to leave for Moscow. The film portrays the nationalist uprising as an anti-communist, national self-defense movement. According to the accompanying somewhat racist commentary the country is being "strangled by political forces foreign to the Spanish people's soul." The film starts off with the fall of the Monarchy in 1931. It disputes the legitimacy of the left wing government which came to power in 1936 and fervently asserts that the nationalist rebellion was justified by the need to protect the Spanish fatherland.

Spanish Earth
Joris Ivens, commentary: Ernest Hemingway, camera: John Fernhout (John Ferno), editing: Helen van Dongen; music: Marc Blitzstein, Virgil Thomson; Production company: Contemporary Historians Inc., USA, 1937, 50 min, in English
The production company Contemporary Historians was set up to raise money for a documentary about the Spanish Civil War, filmed on the spot. With John Ferno and initially with John Dos Passos, who later left the crew and was replaced by Ernest Hemingway, Joris Ivens went to Fuenteduena, near Madrid, to film with the Republican armies at the front. It was to become one of the major films on the Spanish Civil War and one of the most important films in Ivens' career. As in many other films Ivens finds a balance between people's daily lives and their struggle to survive. The strong photography, mainly by John Ferno, combined with the decisive editing by Helen van Dongen and Ernest Hemingway's commentary, make the film's message universally powerful. In the first version the commentary was spoken by Orson Welles, but as a result of personal conflict with Hemingway, he withdrew from the project and Hemingway himself read the commentary. Joris Ivens (1898-1989) made more then 80 films, working between 1912 and 1988 in over 30 countries. From a bourgeois entrepreneurial background, he became a communist and is still considered one of the most important political filmmakers of the century. His films on Soviet socialism, the Spanish Civil War, the Indonesian struggle for independence, the Vietnam war and the Cuban and Chinese revolutions, make him a subject of controversy in any debate on the relationship between art and propaganda. Ivens used the profits from Spanish Earth to purchase ambulances for the Loyalists.

Return to Life
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Herbert Kline, USA, 1937, 44 min, in English
Documentary on medical aid and humanitarian work in American hospitals operating in Republican Spain. This anti-fascist film was co-directed by American documentarist Herbert Kline and well-known French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, for whom it became a filmmaking debut. Kline is best known for his political films produced under the auspices of the New York Film and Photo League, a group known for making sociopolitical documentaries in the early 1930s. He was among the first Americans to record the horror and bloodshed following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. World-famous photographer Cartier-Bresson was one of the key figures in the development of photography as a documentary record. His interest in film medium was awoken during a visit to the US in the mid-1930s, when he met photographer Paul Strand and Herbert Kline, and the Film and Photo League. In the 1930s, this group was increasingly putting its faith in the Communist parties, and in 1937 some of them, including Cartier-Bresson, went to Spain as volunteers. Cartier-Bresson himself filmed a group of young children playing in the streets: a brief sequence that captures the children's unaffected joyful movement. For him, the freedom of childhood had become a symbol of liberty. The importance he gave to sequential images in still photography may be attributed to his preoccupation with film. Cartier-Bresson later cited filmmaking as a key influence on his own artistic values.

The Biscay Front and July 18 | Frente de Vizcaya y 18 de Julio
Production FET and de las JONS, Spain, 1937, 45 min, in Spanish
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Spain was torn apart and the film industry remained in the republican part of the country. As a result, the nationalists could hardly compete with their opponents' highly successful propaganda, which also included contributions from international filmmakers such as J-P. Le Chanois, Joris Ivens, and Cartier-Bresson. The Falangists had only two film studios in Cadiz and Cordoba. They also established contacts with studios in Rome, Berlin, and Lisbon in order to complete their productions shot in Spain. The Biscay Front was one of the first commissions of the Falange, the nationalists' political organization. On the 18th of July military units from the Spanish protectorate in Tetuan, Morocco, joined the Francoist troops. The film presents an upsurge of anarchy in the villages as well as the destruction of monuments and cultural treasures by "revolutionary hordes who obey foreigner's guidelines." The film calls men to struggle and not to desert the fatherland. Later, in 1943, Franco declared July 18th to be "Valour Day". As well as heroicizing the 72-hour falangist rebellion, the film also presents the falangist version of the destruction of Guernica. According to this account the miners of Asturia were deceived by the "reds" into blowing up the city. It was only ten years ago that Germany acknowledged that it was in fact German planes that were responsible for the bombing.

Spain | Ispania
Esfir' Shub, 1939, USSR, 85 min, in Russian and Hungarian
The Soviet government placed a high value on the Spanish War's potential for cinematic exploitation. Starting in August 1936, the Central Committee of the Communist Party dispatched filmmaker Roman Karmen and cameraman Boris Makaseev to Spain, where they filmed for eleven months on the Republican side, shooting altogether 18,000 meters of stock which were turned into twenty-two newsreels called On the Events in Spain (K sobytiam v Ispanii). Soviet reports on Spain ended abruptly in July 1937, but the footage was further "recycled" into several feature-length documentaries. One was them was to have been made by Karmen himself, but as he was sent further afield to China, the making of the documentary was passed on to Esther/Esfir' Shub, who is given directorial credit. Esfir' Shub (1894 - 1959) started her cinema career re-editing foreign films for Soviet distribution. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Soviet Revolution she made her first documentary films The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty and The Great Road, followed by Lev Tolstoy and the Russia of Nicolai II, all of them montage films. Shub is a pioneer of the "historical compilation film", developing a middle path between narrative and documentary forms. The script for Spain was written by Vsevolod Vishnevskii, an ideologically tested Soviet writer and dramatist.

Days of Hope | L'Espoir - Sierra de Teruel
André Malraux, 1939-45, France & Spain, 90 min, in French with Hungarian subtitles
The French novelist André Malraux was an early volunteer for the Republican cause, organizing an international squadron in the summer of 1936 and flying several missions himself. Espoir is his only film, based on his novel of the same title, which was inspired by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. Malraux's contacts with the (non-interventionist) Popular Front Government in Paris procured him some usable French aircraft and he flew on bombing missions himself before withdrawing once the squadron was brought under Spanish control - and then named after him! Although the Republican Air Force was only a makeshift collection of unreliable aircraft which were dangerous to fly and whose raids were good for morale but strategically of small account, Malraux succeeds in creating memorable portraits of heroes who struggle to maintain their dignity and humanity amid violence and political chaos. Espoir was mainly filmed in Spain during the war, and incorporated genuine combat footage along with acted out scenes. The completed footage was then smuggled to France, which was under Nazi occupation at the time. The film was not shown publicly until after France was liberated, when it earned the nation's highest cinematic honor, the Louis Delluc Award.

The Blue Division | La división azúl
Víctor de la Serna, Joaquín Reig, 1946, Spain, 37 min, in Spanish
On June 22 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The propagandists of the Franco Regime considered the offensive to be the continuation of the war against Communism which had begun in Spain in 1936. Two days later the Spanish Government declared unconditional support for Germany and commenced recruitment. The Blue Division (La División Azul) arrived in Russia on the 16th July and Franco only ordered its return in October 1943. By this time the Allies had gained the upper hand and Franco did not seem so enthusiastic about fighting the Soviet Union. He brought the Blue Division home quietly and discreetly. This is the one and only documentary that portrays the true circumstances of the mission. According to the commentary these "immortal breed of men" were ready to purge Europe of the Communist menace just as had been done in Spain by the "army of youths" led by the Caudillo, the Leader. Using racist rhetoric, the film formulated the mission to fight Communism as a "crusade of civilisation" against the infidels and the "Asian danger" personified by Stalin.

They Shall Not Pass! | No pasaran!
László Bokor, 1961, Hungary, 20 min, in Hungarian
The director of socialist propaganda films, László Bokor, made this motion picture focusing on the heroism of the international brigades. The film starts with shots of fascist fighter planes wreaking havoc. Afterwards there is a segment showing Dolores Ibarruri going in vain to France for help. Spain's only hope lies in the "thousand tongues, one heart" brigades. And the Condor legion strikes! Their motto: "We came to incinerate not to illuminate" The context of the Spanish Civil War is then used as an illustration of the events of 1956 in Hungary, where the "counter-revolution" is labeled as a fascist reaction.

To Die in Madrid | Mourir a Madrid
Frédéric Rossif, 1962, France, 85 min, in Hungarian
To Die in Madrid is Rossif's montage film: written together with Madeleine Chapsal and produced by Nicole Stéphane, it was built up from newsreels and archival footage of the Spanish Civil War. Using texts by Georges Bernanos, André Malraux, Antonio Machado, Arthur Koestler, Ernest Hemingway and Federico Garcia Lorca, Frédéric Rossif's account is openly partisan, glorifying the Republican cause and condemning the policy of non-interventionism. It was created in homage to the work and deeds of André Malraux and primarily to his film Espoir, filmed mainly in Spain but completed and released only after World War II. Frédéric Rossif was born in Cetinje, Montenegro, fled with his family to Greece during World War II and settled in France after the war. The international acclaim that greeted To Die in Madrid testified to the importance of a directly political message in the 1960s for left-wing intellectuals in France and beyond. The film received the Jean Vigo award, the Chevalier de la Barre Award, the Flaherty Documentary award and was nominated for Oscar as best foreign film in 1963. Although Rossif is best known for his pioneering productions for French television, this film was not shown on French TV until 1975.

Why Die in Madrid? | Por qué morir en Madrid?
Eduardo Manzanos, Spain, 1966, 70 min, in Spanish
International propaganda in connection with the Spanish Civil War was to continue for decades after the war itself ended. French director Frédéric Rossif made his documentary To Die in Madrid in 1963 with an openly partisan pro-republican stance. By this time the official Spanish standpoint had decided to blame the outside world and the international brigades for the atrocities committed during the war. Manzanos's film works towards reinforcing this stance, re-editing and re-narrating Rossif's film in accordance with the equally partial and biased "truth" of the Franco regime.

Old Memories | La vieja memoria
Jaime Camino, 1977, Spain, 165 min, in Spanish
After Franco's death in 1975, a number of films, novels and other works began to explore the Civil War from perspectives that just a few years earlier would have been forbidden. Jaime Camino's masterful The Old Memories is one of the key works in revisiting the past and especially in analyzing the mechanisms by which historical events are recalled. Weaving together period documentary footage with interviews with many of the surviving figures who either appear or are often referred to in that footage, Camino reveals the gaps and contradictions that emerge between the records of history and our memories of them. Shifting political realities, later revelations, current attitudes - these and other developments have a profound effect on how we can know the past. Among those we see and hear in the film are former dictator Primo de Rivera, Christian Social Democrat Gil Robles, and anarchist Frederica Montseny, but perhaps the most remarkable moments belong to Dolores Ibarruri, "La Pasionaria," whom Camino filmed in Moscow.

Spanien! | Spain!
Peter Nestler, Federal Republic of Germany, 1973, 43 min, in German
Personal accounts of the volunteers from different countries who fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. The film crew travelled to different places in Sweden, Finland, and Germany to meet the men who used to be international brigadists. They also came to Budapest to meet Dezsö Jász, who took part in the war under the name of General Juan de Pablo. Travelling further to Spain, the crew discovers living and painful memories of the Civil War. Young members of the Workers' Commissions speak about their experiences of repression by the Franco regime. Intercutting the narrative with archival footage, personal photographs, and documents, the film brings forward the layered nature of memories. "The film portrays people who lived and wanted to live in the spirit of internationalism, and who feel responsible for the course of events in the world. The film also shows how people can live today. Two or three people with a car, a camera and a tape recorder tour and collect. The basis of their concentration is permanent work: every day people, texts, images, ideas, music, and sights remain related." (Harun Farocki, 1979). Peter Nestler was born in 1937 in Freiburg and made his first documentary films in Germany. In 1966 he emigrated to Sweden, where he currently lives and works.

Spain in the Heart - Hans Beimler and others | Spanien im Herzen - Hans Beimler und andere
Karlheinz Mund, DEFA-Studio, German Democratic Republic, 1985, 42 min, in German
The late 1970s and 1980s witnessed a new wave of interest in the Spanish Civil War, which is percieved more and more through numerous literary allusions, film references, and the broadly popular Wolf Biermann songs with references to Spain. This documentary was comissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War. Among others, the director interviews ex-brigadists Heinz Priess and Willi Burger, as well Dolores Ibarruri, Pere Ardiaca, Avelino Hernandes who speak about their experiences during the Spanish Civil War and their memories of the German communist and Reichstag member Hans Beimler (1895 - 1936). After Adolf Hitler came to power, Beimler was arrested and spent a month in the concentration camp in Dachau. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he joined the International Brigades and was a political commissar in the Thäelmann Battalion. He was killed defending Madrid in December 1936. The emerging portrait of a generation with a charismatic and devoted anti-fascist as a leader contained a veiled criticism of the petrified GDR leadership and suggested to at least a minority of East Germans an alternative to the reality of state socialism in their country. The film includes rare archival material and footage by British communist filmmaker Ivor Montague from the Spanish Civil War.

The Children of Russia | Los Ninos de Rusia
Jaime Camino, 2001, Spain, 93 min, in Spanish with English subtitles
During the Spanish Civil War, children of Spanish Republicans were evacuated to the Soviet Union. The two last child-transport ships left the ports of Bilbao and Gijon in June 1937. When they arrived in Leningrad, the children were enthusiastically welcomed by the Soviet populace. After the outbreak of the Second World War and the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, all plans to send the children home were postponed to the distant future; as the front approached, the children were evacuated by train to the Ural Mountains. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, the children returned to the "children's houses" in Moscow and Leningrad once more. Some of them were old enough to take up apprenticeships - but there was still no sign of their being able to return to Spain. It is not until 1956, when many of these children had reached adulthood and founded families of their own, that the governments of Spain and the Soviet Union finally came to an agreement which enabled the "children from Spain" to come home at last. This moving film traces the individual stories contextualised within the larger historical events. Spanish filmmaker Jaime Camino made a number of films about the Spanish Civil War: Espana Otra Vez / Spain Again (1968), Las Largas Vacaciones del 36 / The Long Holidays of '36 (1976), and La vieja memoria (1977). Before debuting as a director, Camino studied music and law and wrote film reviews in the mid-'60s.

El perro negro : Stories from the Spanish Civil War
Péter Forgács, 2004, Hungary, 84 min, in English with Hungarian subtitles
The personal drama and historical turbulence of life in Spain before and during the Spanish Civil War as told through a careful assemblage of home movies. Amateur film footage, photos and letters from both sides of the conflict are constructed as a balanced portrait of a country overturned by fascism, labor unrest and the rise of anarchy. The film evokes names long lost in the violence of the era, including rich Catalan industrialist Francesc Salvans, his son Joan, and leftist Ernesto Noriega - men who found themselves on opposite sides of an international conflict. The Salvans, father and son, were murdered by an anarchist 6 days after the outbreak of the war without taking any part in the military conflict. Noriega, who was arrested for warning a village priest about the approach of Republican soldiers, was imprisoned yet managed, even during his incarceration, to shoot film. The quality and breadth of the 70-year-old footage, which includes unique 9.5mm home-movie stock, is an astounding tribute to the talent and perspective of hobbyist filmmakers, and the resulting fusion of images, sound and music creates an unusually illuminating, very intimate history lesson.