Spanish Cinema Against Itself, New Directions in National Cinemas

“An extraordinary philosophical exploration of the political potential and continued political commitment of cinema today . . . An essential read.” —Patricia Keller, Associate Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, Cornell University

Spanish Cinema Against Itself maps the evolution of Spanish surrealist and politically committed cinematic traditions from their origins in the 1930s—with the work of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, experimentalist José Val de Omar, and militant documentary filmmaker Carlos Velo—through to the contemporary period. Framed by film theory this book traces the works of understudied and non-canonical Spanish filmmakers, producers, and film collectives to open up alternate, more cosmopolitan and philosophical spaces for film discussion. In an age of the post-national and the postcinematic, Steven Marsh’s work challenges conventional historiographical discourse, the concept of “national cinema,” and questions of form in cinematic practice.

“In this exhilarating counter-history of experimental filmmaking in Spain, Steven Marsh takes up the politics of form, the trouble with film history, and the theoretical potential of haunting, discontinuity, and absence . . . Spanish Cinema Against Itself is an important intervention in Spanish film studies and, indeed, in the scholarship on world cinema.” —Rosalind Galt, Professor of Film Studies, King’s College London