Three hundred personalities from the world of theater, cinema, communication and other fields have signed a manifesto entitled In defense of the honor of Joan Ollé, following the appearance of two images of the recently deceased director in the documentary El sostre groc.
The signatories express their “regret and indignation at the appearance of two images of Joan Ollé” in said documentary, directed by Isabel Coixet, produced by Miss Wasabi Filmes and broadcast a few days ago by TV3 and La 2 de TVE.
Among the signatories stand out singers like Ana Belén, Miguel Ríos, Guillermina Motta, Jaume Sisa or Joan Manuel Serrat, performers like Vicky Peña, Mar Ulldemolins, Pep Munné, Candela Antón, Mario Gas, Carmen Conesa, Josep M.ª Pou or Mercè Pons , directors and producers such as Paco Mir, Ester Nadal or Isona Passola, and names in the world of communication such as Ricard Ustrell or Rosa Cullell.
In the program El sostre groc “repeated cases of sexual and psychological abuse by two teachers in the Aula de Teatre of the Lleida City Council are reported.” The manifesto states that “Joan Ollé had no direct or indirect relationship with the cases of abuse reported in the documentary.” It is true that “Ollé spent time as a visiting professor at the center”, but he was not related to the facts denounced.
“With that alone it would be enough -the manifesto continues- to suspect that the inclusion of his image in two photographs (in one of which, in addition, his name appears next to the main defendant and the mayor of Lleida) is a way secretly and deliberately to involve him personally, even more so when this appearance is preceded by a few words in which it is denounced that the management team of the Classroom (to which the accused belonged as director) exercised absolute power to manage the center both in the aspect pedagogical as well as administrative”.
The text considers that “as formulated, the perverse association between recruiters and contracted is suggested, placing the two at a similar level of immorality.”
Joan Ollé was accused of acts of a similar nature at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona, ??”facts that, however, were never reported to the courts and that, consequently, were considered not proven in any way by the Institute itself” , and were “subsequently dismissed by the Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office”.
For this reason, the manifesto considers that “now including his image in this documentary does not seem casual to us, but rather an exercise in interested manipulation and the consequence of a deliberate will to remember him as allegedly guilty of conducts that were never proven and of which, for Therefore, he was found innocent.”
The signatories claim “the image of an irreproachable professional, of an indefatigable creator, who has left a legacy of extraordinary proportions.”
This manifesto “is not a document against Isabel Coixet”, reads the press release, “but a support for Maria Guillén, widow of Joan Ollé, and a manifesto to show regret and disagreement with the appearance of the images of Joan Ollé” in the documentary El soctro groco.
