Endorsements

Fusing a distinctive feminist aesthetics with a startling vision of twentieth-century Spain, the work of Cecilia Bartolomé casts a new light on the histories of both Spanish national film, and transnational women's cinema. This book, the first in English on the director, and only the second in any language, analyses her shorts, medium- and feature-length films, television work - as well as her un-filmed scripts - in order that she may take her place among other key auteurs of Spanish and feminist cinema. Deploying extensive archive work, including Film School documentation and press reviews, The Cinema of Cecilia Bartolomé adopts an auteurist approach, but nuances it to include speculative approaches to censored and un-filmed work, thereby fashioning a new way of writing a feminist creative life in film. The volume also includes a new interview with the director, the first to be published in English. The 'feminism' of the subtitle indicates that each text is placed in dialogue with intersectional feminism, including Girlhood Studies (my approach to ¡Vámonos, Bárbara!), political activism (my focus on the diptych documentaries) and race (the framework in which I place Lejos de África). 'Francoism', highlights not only Bartolomé's opposition to dictatorship, but the fact that each text must be placed within the contexts of socio-political developments in Spain. While the number of Bartolomé's texts may be reduced, their range of medium, genre, theme and tone is wide, stretching from scripts, shorts, medium- and feature-length films, to television; from genres musical, comedy, and melodrama to documentary.