This new book catalogues some 215 prominent film directors from both countries, giving accurate bio-filmographies and providing an in-depth reference source. Full attention is given to the propaganda cinema under dictators Franco and Salazar, to film-makers who left to work abroad--especially in Latin America--and to those filming in the regional languages (mainly Basque and Catalan). There is coverage not only of internationally well-known figures Almodovar, Bunuel, Oliveira, and Saura, but also across the complete range of feature, documentary, and animation film-making: early pioneers Segundo de Chomon, Catalans Jose Maria Codina, Fructuoso Gelabert, and Magi Muria, and Portuguese Aurelio da Paz dos Reis; experimentalists and avant-garde figures such as Lorenzo Llobet-Gracia, Jose Val del Omar, and Nemesio Sobrevila and documentarist Antonio Campos; animators Cruz Delgado, Francisco Macian, and Arturo Moreno (who worked on the first full-length animated film in Europe, Garbancito de la Mancha, in 1945).
Each entry gives information on the film-maker's career (date and place of birth, educational qualifications, work experience, positions held), together with a list of films made, with dates of production. There are three indexes: Country Index, Film Title Index, and General Index. The index of film titles lists over 3,000 entries, including the original languages and their English language and aka equivalents.
About the Author: RAFAEL DE ESPANA is cofounder and now director of the Centre for Cinematic Research Film-Historia, and associate editor of its magazine./e He has lectured on Spanish cinema at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, the University of Southampton, and the University of Texas at Austin. He has written extensively for art, film, and historical journals, including Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, D'Art, Fotogramas, and Historia y Vida.
