It is not known when, but it will happen: the seventh national art will have its first Museum of Spanish Cinema and it will be located here, in Madrid. This was announced yesterday by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, and the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Spain, Fernando Méndez-Leite. The news was announced during a ceremony in the same building that will house it after undergoing a rehabilitation process.
It is a historic building of more than 4,000 m² located at number 145 Velázquez Street, headquarters of NO-DO since 1942 and that, after passing through different stages, was left unused in 2007 since RTVE workers moved to another building.
The Museo del Cine Español, they explained, was created with the aim of “creating an exhibition center of reference of the Spanish cinematographic activity” and it will exhibit and preserve the Spanish cinematographic heritage.
The Museum of Spanish Cinema, a space of memory
In addition to being a place where it will be possible to visit exhibitions, watch screenings or attend didactic initiatives, “a space of memory” will be set up from the archives of NO-DO itself -nearly 70,000 negatives- and heritage material to disseminate the history of the building and the history of Spanish audiovisuals during Franco’s regime.
An exhibition at the Filmoteca Española on cinema
Until the existence of this new museum becomes a reality, in the Exhibition Hall of the Filmoteca Española (Calle de La Magdalena, 10) can be visited until the end of the month -specifically until the 27th- the exhibition Los 100 metros libres. Life and miracles of the Film School (1947-1976).
The institution was a space of freedom in times of dictatorship and marked a before and after in our cinematography: it produced figures of the stature of Berlanga, Cecilia Bartolomé, Josefina Molina, Víctor Erice, Pilar Miró and Iván Zulueta.