News Spanish Study Day at the BFI 05.12.2019

On Tuesday, Lower Sixth Spanish students took part in a study day at the British Film Institute on ‘Trauma and Memory: Filming the legacy of dictatorships in Spain and Chile’.

A workshop explored the recent histories of Spain and Chile, focusing on the representation of political repression, the ‘disappeared’, memory wars and the fight of victims trying to obtain justice. We then watched El Silencio de Otros (The Silence of Others), a powerful documentary following the struggles of a group of victims of Franco’s dictatorship and their families as they organise an international lawsuit in Argentina in an attempt to fight the government-sanctioned ‘pact of forgetting’ the crimes that they suffered. The girls were then lucky enough to have the opportunity of a question and answer session with the film’s co-director via video link.

It was a fascinating, and at times very moving, day and provided an invaluable opportunity to go beyond the A Level and IB curriculums.