Democrazy in Spain: Cinema and New Forms of Social Life (1968-2008) - (Contemporary Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures) by Isabel M Estrada (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library as part of the Opening the Future project with COPIM.

The 2008 financial crisis prompted the most significant social protests since 1968 in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. These protests generated not only social reform but also collaborative and affective affiliations, often seen through artistic and cultural materials. Taking Spain as a focal point, this book examines film production at both points in time, showing how it emerges from simultaneously divergent and comparable economic and political milieux. The book aims to recognize and celebrate the political responsibility exercised and expressed by a new generation of Spaniards deeply immersed in those protests. Through the convergences of two markedly significant periods in two separate centuries, filmmakers expose the deficiencies of Spain's democracy in 2008--the D MOCRAZY in the title, a slogan seen on a banner carried by the protesters--while creating a new sensibility and forms of social life that bring back the notions of community and the common good that had been forgotten in the midst of such a brittle environment.

Review Quotes

"D MOCRAZY in Spain: Cinema and New Forms of Social Life (1968-2008) recovers an understudied filmic archive, offering incisive analyses of experimental cinema produced in Spain from the 1960s to the present." Dr Bryan Cameron, University of Cambridge

"This is a well-argued, significant, and original scholarly work. The author displays deep knowledge of Spanish politics and culture, especially documentary film, and the focus on female independent and underground filmmakers is especially worthwhile." Professor Elizabeth Scarlett, University at Buffalo, SUNY