Press release from the Generalitat of Catalonia
- https://govern.cat/salapremsa/notes-premsa/699862/filmoteca-catalunya-preservara-fons-filmic-documental-pere-portabella
15/04/2025
- A reception was held today at the Palau de la Generalitat with the family of the filmmaker, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Head of Culture, Sònia Hernández Almodóvar.
- The Portabella archive has a high patrimonial value and is a valuable source for the study of the cinematographic, cultural and political history of contemporary Catalonia.
- The unity of the Portabella legacy at the Filmoteca will be essential for the commemoration of the centenary of the filmmaker’s birth, scheduled for 2027.
On the occasion of the signing of the agreement for the deposit of the Portabella legacy at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, a reception was held today at the Palau de la Generalitat with the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa; the Head of Culture, Sònia Hernández Almodóvar and and relatives of the filmmaker. The reception was also attended by the director of the ICEC, Edgar Garcia, and the director of the Filmoteca de Catalunya, Pablo La Parra Pérez.
This completes the integral deposit of the Portabella archive at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, an institution that will ensure the unitary treatment of the filmmaker’s film and documentary legacy. The unity of the collection reflects the singular trajectory of Pere Portabella, in which it is impossible to distinguish political commitment from artistic excellence, always under the common thread of the cinema that was the backbone of his entire career.
The extensive career of Pere Portabella (Figueres, 1927) has bequeathed a collection of documents and artistic contributions of great value. Responsible, as a director and producer, for milestones in Catalan and Spanish cinematography; key agent in artistic avant-garde networks with national and international impact; political reference committed to the democratic and cultural rights of Catalonia from clandestine anti-Francoist militancy to participation in the new democratic institutions, the legacy of Pere Portabella i Ràfols is a witness to the highest ethical and aesthetic values and represents an irreplaceable piece of the country’s heritage.
Since 2017, Pere Portabella entrusted the Filmoteca with the preservation and documentation of his film legacy. The signing of the new gratuitous bailment contract completes the integrity of the collection guarded by the Filmoteca, which includes all of his cinematographic works, unpublished audiovisual materials and documentation related to his cinematographic, cultural and political activity.
Aware of the high patrimonial value and the general interest of his legacy, the Filmoteca de Catalunya is committed, in compliance with its mission recognized in the Cinema Law, to safeguard and guarantee the preservation, study, identification, cataloguing and dissemination of the Portabella collection. Given its trajectory, always interdisciplinary and groundbreaking, the Filmoteca will ensure the integral treatment of the collection, guaranteeing the unity and interrelation of the audiovisual and documentary materials of the collection.
The unitary treatment will make it possible to manage all requests, consultations and uses that may occur, especially in view of the programs related to the commemoration of the centenary of the filmmaker’s birth in 2027. The Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Ministry of Culture are already working together to prepare this commemoration, an initiative whose purpose is the legacy in contemporary creation and thought. For the design of the activities, which will take place between 2026 and 2027, Jordi Balló Fantova (Figueres, 1954), university professor, film producer and cultural manager, has been appointed as curator. The Filmoteca will be the institution in charge of articulating the collaboration with other national and international agents within the framework of this commemoration, as the institution in charge of ensuring the preservation and accessibility of the Portabella collection.
Pere Portabella (Figueres, 1927) is a director, screenwriter and producer. Since his beginnings as a filmmaker he has owned the production company Films 59, with which he has produced all his films and others of Spanish cinema as relevant as Carlos Saura (Los golfos, 1959), Marco Ferreri (El cochecito, 1960) or Luis Buñuel (Viridiana, 1961), which received the Festival’s Palme d’Or award.
As a director, Portabella made his debut with the film No compteu amb els dits in 1967, with a script by the Catalan poet and artist Joan Brossa. In 1999 he was awarded the Sant Jordi Cross by the Generalitat de Catalunya. With the documentary Mudanza, a commission from the Huerta de San Vicente to pay tribute to the poet Federico García Lorca, he won the 2009 National Film Award from the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2012 the Academia del Cinema Català awarded him the Gaudí d’Honor in recognition of his career. Recently, he has been distinguished by the Ministry of Culture with the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts 2024.
Although Portabella’s career has been centered in the field of cinema, it goes beyond the mere cinematographic fact. It constitutes a thread of historical continuity, whose biography begins in the 1950s at the moment when the plastic avant-garde reappeared after the Civil War (he maintained a close relationship, for example, with the Dau al Set group). His first cinematographic activities are to be found in the period of the emergence of modern cinema in Spain. His trajectory continues with the questioning of the artistic languages of the sixties. At the same time, he became involved with the democratic political commitment of the culture of the seventies. In 1977 he was elected Senator and participated in the Commission of the 1978 Constitution. He was also in charge of organizing the return of President Josep Tarradellas from the airport to the Plaça de Sant Jaume on October 23, 1977, an event that staged the restoration of the Generalitat. His political work. During the eighties, he persevered in his approaches during complicated periods for the type of cinema opposed to purely commercial objectives.
