Scottish Documentary Institute and Cinemaattic welcome filmmaker and photographer Ana Schulz, co-director of the Locarno-premiered Mudar la Piel (The Spy Within) to present the process behind making a film that pushes the boundaries of non-fiction, navigating between being a family portrait, a classic spy film and a political thriller.
The Spy Within (Ana Schulz & Cristobal Fernandez, 2018) was premiered in Locarno Film Festival and it also opened the last San Sebastian Film Festival. The Film is a thrilling documentary and also a family portrait showing the friendship between Juan -a mediator that struggled for peace between the ETA and the Spanish government- and Roberto, the agent of the secret service who infiltrated in his life for years. The documentary touches on friendship and trauma in times of an armed conflict (Basque conflict), surveillance, forgiveness and how films may help to heal the wounds of memory.
But the film is also the chronicle of the filmmakers’ relationship with the spy and of how difficult they found it to trap his slippery identity.
There is so much at stake when the documentary filmmaker chooses her own father as the subject for her next film. Even more when the film aims to investigate a silenced conversation for years within the family, that involves also surveillance and national secret services’ actions. Processes that can go from discovery to acceptance and influence the final film but most importantly the realationship between director / subject -and most critically in this case, the relation father / daughter-.
In this talk, Ana Schulz will discuss how challenging was to find the final hybrid way to tell the story(ies), and how the documentary changed since the first recordings until the final cut.
This event is part of Basque Spring, a film season organised by Cinemaattic that will bring to the UK classic and contemporary films from Basque Country from April 25th to May 23rd, and includes special screenings, talks and gastronomic events. The retrospective is supported by Etxepare Basque Institute and is part of the #ScotlandGoesBasque programme.
More information at www.cinemaattic.com