{"id":46166,"date":"2022-11-14T15:50:58","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artxiboa.sansebastianfestival.com\/investigaciones\/un-cuaquero-hippy-en-el-zinemaldia-el-ciclo-new-american-cinema-1968-en-el-punto-de-mira-franquista\/"},"modified":"2022-12-13T09:39:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T09:39:40","slug":"a-hippy-quaker-in-zinemaldia-the-new-american-cinema-1968-series-targeted-by-francos-regime","status":"publish","type":"investigaciones","link":"https:\/\/artxiboa.sansebastianfestival.com\/en\/research\/a-hippy-quaker-in-zinemaldia-the-new-american-cinema-1968-series-targeted-by-francos-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u201chippy Quaker\u201d in Zinemaldia
The New American Cinema (1968) series, targeted by Franco\u2019s regime. "},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A \u201chippy Quaker\u201d in Zinemaldia
The New American Cinema (1968) series, targeted by Franco\u2019s regime. <\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Customs report issued by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Delegation of the Ministry of Information and Tourism (26 July 1968)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Garc\u00eda Escudero’s censorship, while being more tolerant than that of Arias Salgado in the Ministry of the Interior, continued to get the scissors out despite claiming that a prohibited film was more worthy than a mutilated one.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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As Rom\u00e1n Gubern and Dom\u00e8nec Font point out in their classic study on censorship, the tolerance shown by the censor Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Garc\u00eda Escudero (Director-General of Cinematography between 1962 and 1969) was nevertheless paradoxical. Towards the end of the 1960s, Franco’s regime was immersed in its developmental phase, so it ‘facilitated’ small windows of a false openness. It was what Gubern called, in another context, “controlled opposition”: i.e. allow guided criticism, mainly to project an image of modernity to the world, while censorship continued to be carried out inside the country.[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0The small ‘bits of opportunity’ took the form of the creation of Art cinemas in 1967[3]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0to show films, and the relative openness granted to the San Sebastian Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Official poster of the 16th edition<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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In the sixteenth edition of the Festival in 1968 a series of significant events took place that would never have taken place without the false openness that the regime aspired to: the international premiere of the Basque film\u00a0Ama Lur<\/em>\u00a0by N\u00e9stor Basterretxea and Fernando Larruquert, and the inclusion of a series of films dedicated to US avant-garde cinema (New American Cinema), programmed in the Retrospective Section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The politically revolutionary and agitated 1968 had seen the suspension of the Cannes Festival on May 13th<\/sup>\u00a0after pressure caused by the strikes that united university students and filmmakers. In Europe, the movement spread and caused great disturbance to other festivals such as Pesaro and Venice\u00a0in Italy or Knokke-Le Zoute in Belgium, where the itinerant New American Cinema programme was also scheduled to be shown. While the struggles of ’68 affected other international festivals, in the case of Spain the official discourse -backed up by the media and the organisers of the San Sebastian Festi\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Mr. Belvedere, \"Un final conformista para un Festival apacible\", Fotogramas (26 July 1968). Press Dossier P.1968.BCN.B-T, San Sebastian International Film Festival Archive<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Salvador Corber\u00f3, \"Las aguas tranquilas del Festival no han sido movidas por los vientos rusos o suecos\", Diario de Barcelona (8 July 1968). Press dossier P.1968.BCN.B-T, San Sebastian International Film Festival Archive<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Pascual Cebollada, \"San Sebasti\u00e1n: un Festival de cine en paz\", Peri\u00f3dico Ya (7 July 1968). Press dossier P.1968.MAD.S-Y, San Sebastian International Film Festival Archive<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nevertheless, behind the calm image of normality, the edition was plagued by a series of events that belied the official narrative. After suffering modifications imposed by the ordinary censorship of Franco’s regime, the film\u00a0Ama Lur<\/em>was shown out of competition in the Official Section; it was a documentary that tried to portray Basque folklore in images in a context of strong Spanish nationalism.\u00a0Some of the articles in the press, but only by foreign media such as\u00a0La Dep\u00eache du Midi<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Corriere della Sera<\/em>, were very revealing about the protests that took place outside the Teatro Victoria Eugenia after the screening of the North American film\u00a0The Legend of Lylah Clare\u00a0<\/em>(Robert Aldrich, 1968), with young Basques throwing pro-Vietnam pamphlets and shouting “Yankees go home”.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the midst of the supposed calm another chink in the armour appeared, portraying the previously mentioned slogan by Garc\u00eda Escudero (“a prohibited film was more worthy than a mutilated one”): the censorship applied to the retrospective on New American Cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Adams Sitney was a 24-year-old at the time, a copywriter and critic of the specialised magazine in experimental filmmaking\u00a0Film Culture<\/em>, created by Jonas and Adolfas Mekas, and the curator and creative force behind the itinerant New American Cinema Group programme.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had previously completed an initial tour with the series in 1963 and 1964, but on his second trip to Europe he organised the screening of the programme in the 16th<\/sup>\u00a0edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival. He would also finish the second European tour there before returning to the United States.\u00a0The link between the representatives of new avant-garde American cinema and the San Sebastian Film Festival was a member of the Selection Committee, Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Clemente. His experiences, immortalised in an article in\u00a0Festival<\/em>\u00a0magazine under the title of “Nuevo Cine Americano” published on 12 June 1968, confirms his direct links for the conceptualisation of the retrospective programme.\u00a0<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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