In a display of audacity, the No-Do delegation in Barcelona sent a report on the tram strike of March 1951 to the Madrid headquarters, the first outbreak of social discontent under Francoism. It was never included in the newsreel, a mandatory screening in theaters until 1975…
What happened to that valuable testimony of the tram strike and so many other images still unpublished today –the editing was done at the central headquarters in Madrid– due to apparent censorship criteria? Examples: the Picasso museum, Barça, the performance of the Beatles in Barcelona, ??Els Joglars, Tarradellas in exile…
Not even the propaganda No-Do escaped censorship. Tests? Magí Crusells, professor in the Department of History at the University of Barcelona, ??unfolds two paperback books containing, annotated by hand and in exquisite handwriting, all the films sent by the Barcelona delegation to the Madrid headquarters from the first issue, in January 1943, to the last one, May 1981. Significantly, a few were not included or were issued with a suspicious delay…
“A lifelong No-Do operator in Barcelona, ??Blas Martí, took these records home with him on the day he transferred to TVE in Sant Cugat in 1981. He saw, with good judgment and out of affection, what was his company all my life, that those notebooks were going to end up in the trash. I managed to contact him and this year his widow, Pilar Gabernet, has been kind enough to donate them. The UB will take charge of digitization”, says Professor Crusells.
Thanks to these books, which contain the footage and other details, some of these censored footage could be recovered by the National Film Library, depository of the No-Do legacy: 1,996 numbers and a star (Francisco Franco appeared 1,157 times and in 31.9% of the news items shown between 1943 and 1975, the year of his death).
One reason for hope for recovery is that there was also an employee at the headquarters in Madrid committed to saving and archiving the discarded images. In the case of the tram strike, in Barcelona they did not dare to name the report for its content and opted for the title Details of Barcelona for id. (identify), sent on March 28, 1951 to Madrid.
“The whole world within the reach of all Spaniards”, said the slogan of the newscast, whose tune still resonates with a generation of citizens.
Starting in 1960, contradictions began to appear between a supposedly open Spain and the dark one that did not have all of them. Usually, censorship was imposed. Thus, the book of records confirms that on October 2, 1962, the arrival in Barcelona of the painting given by the painter in favor of those affected by the floods in Vallès on September 25 was filmed – with the title Donativo Picasso y reconstrucción. The work Woman with a Dog or Jacqueline and her Afghan Dog ended up without a buyer and was acquired by Picasso himself. The images of the arrival of the painting were never broadcast.
The inauguration of the Picasso museum, on March 9, 1963, also received cautious treatment. The No-Do avoided mentioning museum, in favor of permanent exhibition. Years later, in 1968, they threw the house out of the window and in the news program 1316 B they released “Picasso is always news”, about a temporary exhibition at the Barcelona museum…
The recording of the concert of The Beatles in the Monumental, on Saturday, July 3, was reduced to… four seconds. And to highlight that they wore a hat when they got off the plane. The concert was more successful than the one the day before in Madrid and they preferred to make it clear to the Spaniards that their homeland did not surrender to those “hairy guys”. Here is an eloquent phrase: “The reception given to them in Madrid is not tremendous.”
The showing of No-Do in theaters was no longer mandatory by a decree of September 1975. The cautious mood, however, never disappeared. Thus, the workers from Barcelona recorded the preparations of Els Joglars for La Torna –unrelated to the one that would be set up–, on August 29, 1977. They sent the report that was not included until No-Do number 1815, already on August 7. November 1977. The announcer took it for granted that La Torna “is the company’s latest success.” In December, the military justice system ordered the arrest of Albert Boadella…
The No-Do visited Josep Tarradellas in September 1977, weeks before his return to Catalonia, at his small farm in the south of France. They thought they had got it right: The first audiovisual medium with “personal” images of a great unknown! “Blas told me about the anger they had when they saw that they had reduced it to the minimum expression (number 1814), also issued on October 31, eight days after setting foot in Barcelona,” says Professor Crusells.
There was only one event that was never covered in Catalonia: “Franco’s visits. The cameramen were always the ones from the Madrid headquarters”. Class question.
