Xavier Cobos Guixé analyzes in this thesis the cinematographic production of the Sindicato de la Industria del Espectáculo of Barcelona during the Civil War focusing on the analysis of two films: Aurora de Esperanza & Barrios Bajos.
Despite the great abundance of works that form and encompass the study of the Spanish Civil War of 1936, nowadays it is still possible to find in the bookstores new publications that continue to make direct reference to this convulsive and complex period of Catalan life and Spanish. The appearance of new works, does not stop showing us that, undoubtedly, there is no analysis or an in-depth study of all the activities carried out during the Spanish warlike confrontation, and therefore, we can not consider it as a closed time, historically talking.
The Civil War of 1936, transformed a divided society, a divided territory. It was a time of change, a period of changes in all aspects of people’s lives, they suffered legal, social and economic changes. It conditioned the lives of millions of Spaniards, decided the future of many others, faced ideologies, destroyed families, created new powers, made others disappear. It is a war that was halfway between the old ways of waging war and the new techniques that perfected the armed confrontation. These minute examples exposed now, can make us see the large number of factors that occurred, influenced and conditioned the exceptional State of War of Spain in the 30s.
The great complexity of the conflict and the multitude of elements that were part, allowed me to raise and structure a research project of what until now was largely unknown by most historians, the cinematography during the Civil War, and more specifically the production film of the CNT union through the Sindicato Único de Espectáculos Públicos,first and secondly by the Sindicato de la Indústria del Espectáculo afterwards. With the project already decided, I saw fit, with the help and advice of Josep Maria Caparrós Lera, to attach a new part to the project in execution, the annexation of a new and ambitious aspect that allowed me, to a greater extent, to deepen in the theme. This element was none other than the analysis of the two preserved base films of the libertarian film production. They are no others than Aurora de Esperanza, by Antonio Sau de Olite and Barrios Bajos by Pedro Puche.
