As part of the Catalan classics strand, the festival will also feature Portabella’s predecessor film General Report on Certain Matters of Interest For a Public Screening (1976), which detailed the struggle within a post-Franco Spain during its transition to democracy.
One of the most important figures in the history of Spanish cinema, Pere Portabella is equally well known in his home country as a politician: he was elected to the Senate in Spain’s first democratic elections in 1977, and took part in the drafting of the Spanish constitution.
This film constitutes the synthesis of Portabella’s openly political clandestine films and his surroundings. Shot in the months after the death of General Franco, it is a “documentary” film shot with the techniques of a fiction film. A coherent link in a filmography intended to explore the limits of filming representation, Informe General is about the future political representation in the Spanish transition, with a clear democratic vocation contradicted by its virtual invisibility during thirty years. Key political figures like former Spanish president Felipe Gonzalez or communist party leader Santiago Carrillo take part in some of the discussions present in the film. The speakers are concerned with one sole question: How do you go from a dictatorship to a democracy? 
EDINBURGH
General Report (1976) by Pere Portabella. Sunday 1st October @Grassmarket Community Project 3.30pm
General Report have a Second Part. As Pere Portabella was thrilled by the surge of the Podemos and the 15M movement in Spain he decided to take the camera again and film the second major attempt of regenerate Spanish democracy.
General Report II: The New Abduction of Europe will be screened in Edinburgh’s Scottish Storytelling Centre on Saturday 30 SEPT followed by a panel discussion on the Impact of European Crises on Arts and Politics.
GLASGOW SPECIFICS
General Report (1976) by Pere Portabella. Thursday 5 October @CCA Glasgow 2.30pm
GLASGOW SPECIAL DOUBLE BILL: General Report (1976) + General Report II (2016) + PANEL DISCUSSION: Arts centres as a space for public debate and political participation.
As we present Portabella’s belated sequel, General Report II. The New Abduction of Europe, at this year’s Catalan Film Festival, we are proud to bring this milestone of political filmmaking back to the screen.
The General Report Double Bill will be followed by a Panel Discussion on the importance of cultural centres as a space for public debate and political participation.
This screening is part of Homage to Catalonia – Scotland’s Catalan Film Festival organised by Cinemaattic with the support of Institut Ramon Llull and Estrella Damm.
