The Documentary in Spain: Political Spaces

Abstract

The development of the political documentary in Spain has been conditioned by a historical trajectory that has ultimately resulted in the near absence of a consolidated tradition of activism in non-fiction filmmaking. However, and in spite of all of the obstacles, the genre has been continuously reinvented under adverse conditions to shape a counternarrative capable of questioning the Establishment. The aim of the discussion here is to analyse the current state of this type of documentary in Spain, to define the relationship such documentaries develop with their viewers, to identify their channels of distribution and to understand their place in relation to international political documentaries.