Memory and Mass Graves: Political Strategies of Independent Documentaries.

Abstract

This article examines the political strategies of independent Spanish documentaries of the 2000s and 2010s in the context of debates about historical memory. The hypothesis of this research is that independent documentaries can operate as vehicles for practices and discourses that are free from the institutional domestication normally affecting film and television productions dealing with memory. It is thus argued that documentary film practices distanced from official political interests can challenge some of the common assumptions in discussions of historical memory and offer a bottom-up perspective, in parallel with a process that brings a grassroots element into public discussions of memory. First of all, the article examines some of the most prominent theoretical positions on memory. We then analyse the films Soldados Anónimos/Soldats Anònims (Pere Vilà and Isaki Lacuesta, 2009), Los materiales (Los Hijos, 2010) and Dime quién era Sanchicorrota (Jorge Tur, 2013) as examples that illustrate these ideas. Based on a study of these films, we question the use of testimony and the indexical value of the document as the foundations of the discourse of the film documentary, and propose a distancing from these practices as a way of avoiding the sentimental use of memory evident in official political positons on the Spanish Civil War.