Informe general, 1976
Filmmaker Pere Portabella shot and collected footage of the social and political situation at the time following the death of Franco. Remaining true to his cinematic stance, the filmmaker used feature film techniques to construct a truly historical document. Written by Portabella, his regular collaborator Octavi Pellissa and musician Carles Santos, who also composed the music, Informe General (General Report) invited politicians, trade union representatives, republicans, monarchists and exiles to reflect on the issues around the question of how to move from a dictatorship to a democracy based on the rule of law. The film presents a mosaic on the development of post-Francoism or the so-called “Spanish transition” without at the same time renouncing a certain awareness of what cinema should be.
As the filmmaker himself explained: “The central idea of this film originated in the same context in which it intends to situate itself: a complete lack of information, a result of an inaccessibility to mass media by important opinion sectors in the country. Cinema can contribute to increase the degree of awareness of the subjects that are essential for the future of our coexistence as citizens. This feature length film is not meant to be a documentary on the immediate past, but rather, the opposite. It is intended to be a reflection on and an approximation to our reality starting with the present, in which there undoubtedly have been substantial changes in both atmosphere and rhythm and in the creation process to which the whole country is committed. ”
In the face of the serious systemic, cultural, political, energy and economic crisis affecting Spain and an already globalised world in 2015, Pere Portabella decided to make a sequel of the film entitled General Report II: The New Abduction of Europe. It provides a testimony to the way civil society is emerging from this crisis with a new prominence that consists of ordinary people recovering politics.
Technical details
- Original title:
- Informe general
- Registration number:
- 1906
- Artist:
- Portabella, Pere
- Date created:
- 1976
- Date acquired:
- 2002
- Fonds:
- MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation
- Object type:
- Audiovisual recording
- Media:
- 16 mm film transferred to digital video, colour, sound, 148 min - Created by Pere Portabella - Produced by Films 59
- Credits:
- MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation. Gift of Pere Portabella
- Copyright:
- © Pere Portabella
- It has accessibility resources:
- No
The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.
For more information on the work or the artist, please consult MACBA's Library. To request a loan of the work, please write to colleccio [at] macba.cat.
If you need a high resolution image of the work, you must submit an image loan request.
