Documentary ‘Benito Pérez Buñuel’ Kicks Off Its Tour in Gran Canaria
The documentary ‘Benito Pérez Buñuel’ by Luis Roca begins its tour on September 3rd at the Municipal Cultural Centre in La Aldea de San Nicolás, before continuing to various municipalities across the island, combining history, fiction, and animation.
Celebrating Literature and Cinema
Throughout September, the magic of literature and cinema will intertwine in several municipalities of Gran Canaria with the itinerant screening of the documentary directed by Luis Roca in 2022, featuring production by Marta de Santa Ana. The tour will commence with the first screening on September 3rd at the Municipal Cultural Centre in La Aldea de San Nicolás.
This 74-minute film artfully blends traditional documentary elements with aspects of mockumentary, autofiction, and animation, inviting audiences to explore the remarkable connections between writer Benito Pérez Galdós and filmmaker Luis Buñuel.
A Tribute to Yolanda Arencibia
The initiative is promoted by the Department of Culture of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria and pays tribute to the late professor of Spanish literature, Yolanda Arencibia. She was a noted expert in disseminating the works of Galdós and features prominently in the documentary.
The documentary’s journey through various municipalities aims to bring the novelist’s figure closer to the general public and continue Arencibia’s commitment to promoting his legacy, which she referred to as “preaching Galdós.”
Screening Schedule
The itinerary for ‘Benito Pérez Buñuel’ will begin on September 3rd at the Municipal Cultural Centre in La Aldea de San Nicolás. The second location will be Mogán, where the film will be screened on September 12th at the El Mocán Cultural Centre. On September 18th, viewers can watch the documentary at the Guaires Cultural Centre in Gáldar, followed by a screening on September 24th at the Exhibition Hall of La Caldereta in Vega de San Mateo. The following day, September 25th, it will be shown at the Teodoro Cardoso León Cultural House in Valleseco. The final screening for September will take place on the 26th at the Cine Forum Hall of the Municipal Ateneo in Vecindario, Santa Lucía de Tirajana.
The film’s screenings will continue in the coming months throughout other municipalities on the island.
A Unique Cinematic Experience
Luis Roca, Arencibia’s son, describes his work as “a cinematic documentary, not a television one, that combines narrative and visual resources to engage diverse audiences, including younger viewers, through three animated sequences.” Shot in Spain, Mexico, and the United States, the film features the voices of respected experts on both creators, delving into a phrase spoken by Luis Buñuel to his friend Max Aub in 1969, revealing the links between the Canary Island writer and the Aragonese filmmaker.
Roca elaborates that “this is a cinematic and not a television documentary, which required crafting an original narrative structure with a guiding thread. It is an autofiction intended to reach broad audiences. Additionally, it includes a mockumentary component, combined with animation that allows the creation of scenes without using actors, thereby attracting younger audiences in three distinct sequences displaying great visual richness, such as Galdós’s departure to the peninsula in 1861, a true encounter of Galdós with Buñuel in Madrid, which the filmmaker recounts in his memoirs, fictionalised to include the presence of Federico García Lorca, and a final sequence recreating the premiere of the film ‘Benito Pérez Buñuel’.”
The film also features contributions from Arencibia, along with Elena Poniatowska, Víctor Fuentes, Arantxa Aguirre, Nelson Carro, Jordi Xifra, Carolina Fernández Cordero, Mario Barro, and Rafael Congrio. The voices of Jerónimo Saavedra, José Luis Gil, Luis Bajo, Manuel Castillo Lago, Joel Bosqued, Mari Carmen Sánchez, and Francisco Montesdeoca are also included.
A Landmark Documentary
‘Benito Pérez Buñuel’ marks the directorial debut of Luis Roca and is the first documentary produced in Gran Canaria to be distributed in commercial cinemas. It has received numerous international awards and was financially supported by Acción Cultural Española (Government of Spain), Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Government of the Canary Islands, the municipalities of Madrid and Calanda, Crea SGR, Fundación Mapfre, the Diputación de Teruel, Radio Televisión Española, Telemadrid, and Televisión Canaria.
About the Director
Luis Roca has served on directing teams for various projects, including Mararía (Antonio José Betancor, 1998) and La Raya (Andrés Koppel, 1997). He has published film articles in El País, El País Semanal, Herald Tribune, El Asombrario/Público, La Provincia, El Día, among others. He was responsible for the first audiovisual sector law in the Canary Islands (1995) and has been a member of committees providing funding for cinema for the Governments of Spain and the Canary Islands.
He has written biographies of producer Andrés Santana (El vuelo de la cometa, 2004), including contributions from a range of prominent names in Spanish cinema, such as Fernando Fernán Gómez, Imanol Uribe, and Mario Camus. He also authored a book on distributor Francisco Melo Sansó (El sueño del Monopol, 2009) and a tribute to Dunia Ayaso (La isla interior, 2018), featuring contributions from, among others, Javier Cámara, Candela Peña, and Cayetana Guillén-Cuervo.
Roca has published texts on cinema and the tourism industry in works from the Fundación César Manrique, the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, the Atlantic Centre for Modern Art, and Fundación Mapfre. He received the Communications Prize from the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2015 for his articles on the Canary Islands in El País and the Roque Nublo Social Prize from the Cabildo de Gran Canaria in 2018, as the communications coordinator of the civic forum Demócratas para el cambio.
