Frames Rocío

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Frames Rocío is a project by artist Federico Garcia Trujillo that reevaluates the controversial documentary Rocío (1980), directed by Fernando Ruiz Vergara, in light of newly recovered content that was censored at the time of the film’s release. Rocío, which documents the pilgrimage of El Rocío in Almonte, Andalusia, was the first documentary to be made in Spain after the adoption of the 1978 constitution and the end of the censorship rules imposed by the Franco regime. Besides the pilgrimage, the documentary uncovered atrocities committed in Almonte in the aftermath of the military coup in 1936, including the deaths of a hundred villagers. Despite the regime having ended, this revelation generated a lot of controversy and the documentary was subsequently banned throughout Spain by the courts, preferring to sweep the issue under the carpet. Ruiz Vergara was ordered to pay José María Reales (the former mayor of Almonte and ringleader of the aforementioned atrocities) 10 million pesetas in damages for the serious accusations directed against him in the film, and he was also sent to prison. When the film finally returned to Spanish cinemas in 1985, it was heavily censored. Through a series of drawings, Garcia Trujillo explores the ways in which the censored content can be publically disseminated in order to challenge and criticise the current constitutional regime in Spain.

More information here.