Catalog

Val del Omar y las Misiones Pedagógicas

This catalog offers an insight  into the educational experience  of the Misiones Pedagógicas during the Second Republic and  the film maker, José Val del Omar, who  worked as a technician, photographer - he took some 9.000 photographs- and film projector operator.

It opens with Ramón Gaya’s lecture at the Residencia de Estudiantes on April 24th, 1991. He recalled his reminisces about that unique project, in which he was a very active participant. Gonzalo Sáenz de Buruaga, one of the curators of the exhibit, writes an essay on José Val del Omar and his role in the Misiones. He made some forty documentaries, all lost except for Estampas,(1932).

Jordana Mendelson deals with the documentary at that time and makes a comparison between José Val del Omar and Luis Buñuel. María García Alonso studies the Misiones’ genealogy. Antonio Viñao Frago describes the route followed by the Misiones in Murcia. Joaquín Cánovas and Isabel Durante analyze Val del Omar’s documentaries shot in Murcia during Easter celebrations and Spring festivals. Javier Herrera writes in detail about one of those documentaries, “ Fiestas  cristianas / fiestas profanas". The catalog concludes with a list of the works exhibited.