SPAIN 1936:

UTOPIA TURNS INTO HISTORY

DVD 56' + BOOK 180 pp. / 22,00 euro / EAN 9788889490686

"In my adult life, I have historically met many victors whose face I found revolting. In those faces, I read hate and loneliness. Had they not won they would not have anything, in order to be somebody they had to kill and oppress. Yet, there exists another race of men that can help us breath. Those are the men who have always placed their existence freedom only within the freedom and happiness of all, even when defeated such men can live and love. These men, even when defeated,  will  never be alone."

Albert Camus

DVD

SCRIPT: PINO CACUCCI

NARRATOR: PAOLO ROSSI and FRANCESCA GATTO

Original documentary shot in 1936-37 by members of the Sindicato de la Industria del Espectaculo (visual archives of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo)

Barcelona, July 1936: the main character of these rare images is the entire Spanish people rising in arms against the fascist coup. The documentary, shot as the actual events were taking place, was originally intended to solicit international antifascist solidarity. In this new version, a complete new commentary, written by the Italian novelist Pino Cacucci and read by the actor Paolo Rossi, narrating the neglected epic of the tragic yet inspiring Spanish Revolution.

BOOK

ANARCHY AND POWER IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

1936-1939

by Claudio Venza

Seventy years ago, in March 1939 General Franco's troops entered Madrid, thus putting an end to a three-year long civil war, which was also inextricably connected with an Anarchist's inspired social revolution. For three years, the whole world participated either ideally or directly to the Spanish tragedy. Franco's victory has long been an open wound in the history of democratic Europe, the more so when one considers the internal bloody conflicts between antiauthoritarian and totalitarian tendencies that tore the antifascist camp. Decades had to pass before historical rigor could overcome the intense emotions these events had engendered. Only recently can the complex scenario of war and revolution intertwined be investigated critically, so to finally redeem the "history of the defeated"  form the "dustbin of  History" and restore it to the great tradition of historical utopias.