Hollywood Studio Magazine (1978)

FILMOTECA by Barbara Haskin There’s a little bit of heaven for the taurine film buff around the corner from the folklorical Plaza Santa Ana at Espoz y Minas #5, Madrid. From the little cafe in the patio at the side of the building with its assorted toreros, managers, gitanos and friends of the barrio discussing yesterday’s corrida, you just duck around the corner, up the ancient, varnished stairs three flights, and open a heavy door to reveal a spotless, modern film lab and studio where Don Jose Gan has lovingly collected every scrap of bullfight film available from Joselito and Belmonte up to yesterday’s triumph to form the most complete film archives of the Fiesta Brava in the world. It’s called Filmoteca. Born in Cordoba, a region steeped in taurine tradition, intimate childhood friend of Manolete and companion of his early struggles until his death in 1947, Don Jose is a human encyclopoedia of the history of bullfighting. He came to Madrid to finish his studies and has devoted his life since 1940 to taurine film, having had many and varied responsibilities within filmmaking such as Director of Photography, Director of Dubbing, Film Editor and becoming at last, Film Director, making many Spanish musicals and comedies, but, early on, combining his love for the bulls with the art of film. He began collecting and cataloguing outakes, certain spectacular shots, pro and amateur clips and every piece of film helping to record the history of bullfighting up to that time. Precious film found nearly rotting, irreplaceable moments, almost lost forever, were painstakingly restored and preserved. He calls his studio a surgery of bullfight art and it’s true, because it’s easy in the excitement of the crowd to be overcome by enthusiasm, but the camera doesn’t lie and the masters passes are trimmed of distracting elements and pared down to those exquisite moments of christalline art that can be studied and revered and adored as is a fine painting. Nevertheless, the bulk of Don Jose’s business is in step with the trend of today and concerns nostalgia. The heaviest and most repeated requests are for films from Manolete’s time (1940) backwards. There are films as early as 1915 of Joselito and Belmonte and various toreros of later epochs. Bullfighters themselves are not the best customers, although there are a few, such as Paco Camino, who are real film fans and are building libraries of their own. Some buy films of their fights to negotiate corridas in Mexico and South America. Other excellent customers are the Penas or fan clubs in foreign countries, mainly France and the United States. Gan has made many documentaries. One has had the dubious honor of being both banned in many countries because of the gorings shown, and winning prizes in other countries. In the United States it is banned for television but not for theaters. The actual filming is strictly a one-man operation becoming a particular art in itself of improvisation and editing in-camera. He allows no one to film for him as he considers his stamp on each film as highly personal. In the laboratory, however, he has a brilliant young technician by the name of Domingo, himself an artist with the mountains of electronic equipment used in the production of each film. The most important people in the bullfight world are regulars in the trophy-studded projection room of Filmoteca but Don Jose is equally generous with his time in allowing the young beginners to study his films for technique and bull knowledge. He is one of the few who understand how impossibly difficult it is to become a matador and has shown his films for the new School of Tauromachy as well as receiving young aspirants in his own studio. He is a firm believer that the lifeblood of the Fiesta is it’s youth. Don Jose Gan is a man who has the stamp of a gentleman in his kind, intelligent personality, as his films have the stamp of the artist. + HOLLYWOOD STUDIO Magazine 19