Domestic cinema in Spain
Preservation, dissemination and appropriation
Home cinema
Home movies can be defined as any film made around family activities, from everyday and leisure activities (with vacations as a classic topic ) to special moments (a baptism, First Communion, etc.). They are filmed and starred by family members and to be watched later as a family without any further editing process. They begin in the twenties, with the appearance of the 16mm format, expand from the fifties, especially with Super 8, and then move to video recording (VHS) and nowadays with cell phones.
The research on home cinema in Spain seeks to study its life cycle after being filmed, from its preservation to its contemporary appropriation by filmmakers. Neglected for a long time, in recent decades it has received increasing attention, both by archivists and academics, increasingly aware of the value of this audiovisual heritage, in which everyday life has been recorded for a century. Sociologists, anthropologists, visual artists, filmmakers, archivists, and historians have all claimed the importance of this cinema, fascinated by its spontaneity, immediacy, and proximity.
OUR PILLARS
The research of project revolves around three main pillars
three fundamental pillars
Preservation and management
documentary
Dissemination and enhancement
Appropriations in film and
in art.
What are our objectives?
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Define the concept of home cinema.
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To study their conservation processes in Spanish institutions and film libraries, in order to establish protocols to help improve archival processes.
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Research new methods of documentary management and cataloging of domestic collections.
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To analyze the ways in which domestic cinema circulates and how it is disseminated.
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To study the role that these home movies have played in contemporary documentary and experimental cinema.
15 researchers from various fields
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programs of study filmic
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Archivistics
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management documentary
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Visual anthropology
Efren Cuevas
Principal investigator
MEMBERS OF THE GROUP
- Efrén Cuevas Álvarez. University of Navarra
- Lourdes Esqueda Verano. University of Navarra.
- Josep María Catalá. Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (emeritus).
- María Ángeles López Hernández. University of Seville.
- Rubén Domínguez Delgado. University of Seville.
- Elena de la Cuadra. Complutense University.
- Julieta Keldjian. Catholic University of Uruguay.
- Ignacio Alcalde. University of Córdoba.
- Juan de Dios López López. University of Córdoba.
- Carlos Trigueros Mori. University of Salamanca.
- Nuria F. Rius. Pompeu Fabra University.
- Fernando Redondo. University of A Coruña
- Clara Sánchez-Dehesa. Elías Querejeta Film School.
- Pedro Nogales. Filmoteca de Catalunya
- Salvador Vivancos. Celluloid Memories
- Nerea Moreno Felipe. University of Castilla La Mancha.
Scientific articles
Alcalde-Sánchez, Ignacio; López-López, Juan de Dios (2024). You pushed the button and we keep doing the rest. Anthropological possibilities of home cinema. An approach through a concrete file . Revista de Antropología Social, 33 (1), 15-29 . https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/raso.87858.
Cuevas, Efrén; Rius, Núria F. and Fibla, Enrique (2024). From the house to the museum. Curating and exhibiting home and amateur cinema. Comparative Cinema, 12(23), 122-135. https://dx.doi.org/10.31009/cc.2024.v12.i23.08
Esqueda Verano, Lourdes (2024). Home Movies as Reliquaries of Memory: A Phenomenological Perspective. Film-Philosophy, 28(2), 350-374. https://doi.org/10.3366/film.2024.0272
López-Hernández, María-Ángeles; Domínguez-Delgado, Rubén and De la Cuadra Colmenares, Elena (2025). ontology proposal for home cinema. Index.comunicación, 15(1), 155-182. https://doi.org/10.62008/ixc/15/01
López-López, Juan de Dios and Alcalde-Sánchez, Ignacio (2024). The displacements of domestic cinema in Spain. Entre el file, la internship artística y la research. Art, Individual and Society, 36(2), 381-393. https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/aris. 91631
Trigueros Mori, Carlos (2024). Relevance and actuality of the practices and aesthetics of domestic video art in Spain. AusArt, 12(1), 121-129 . https://doi.org/10.1387/ausart.25826.
Vivancos López, Salvador and Sánchez Dehesa, Clara (2024). Convertir la report familiar en report colectiva: una década de work en network en torno al cine doméstico. Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico, 111, 8-10. www.iaph.es/revistaph/index.php/revistaph/article/view/5526ç
In process of assessment
Domínguez-Delgado, Rubén; López-Hernández, María-Ángeles and De la Cuadra Colmenares, Elena. "La management del cine doméstico en las filmotecas españolas".
Keldjian Etchessarry, Julieta and Cuevas Álvarez, Efrén. Three decades programs of study on home and amateur cinema: history, balance, perspectives. Aniki : Revista Portuguesa da Imagem em Movimento.
PhD dissertations
Julieta Keldjian Etchessarry, El cine doméstico y amateur: file, medio y modos. 04/07/2023. University of Navarra.
Books
Cuevas, Efrén; Esqueda Verano, Lourdes and Keldjian, Julieta, El cine doméstico en España e Hispanoamérica: preservación, acceso y reutilización. Ed. Tirant le Blanch. In process of publication.
Sánchez-Dehesa, Clara; Vivancos, Salvi; Nogales, Pedro and Moreno, Nerea, home movie preservationguide . Web and paper. In process of publication.
Organization of congresses, seminars and scientific meetings
seminar "Cine Doméstico y filmotecas en España", held on November 24, 2021 in Pamplona and organized by the University of Navarra. With the participation of the film libraries collaborating in the project.
seminar "Cine Doméstico: Resignificación y Apropiación", held in Córdoba on May 3, 2022 and organized by the University of Córdoba.
scientific meeting "Domestic Cinema in Spain", held in Cordoba on June 8 and 9, 2023 and organized by the University of Cordoba.
congress "El Cine Doméstico en España: Contextos, Prácticas y file", held in Pamplona from June 17 to 19, 2024 and organized by the University of Navarra.
scientific meeting "project El Cine Doméstico en España", held at Caixaforum in Zaragoza on February 28, 2025, organized by the University of Navarra.
Participation in congresses, conference and seminars
"meeting of Iberian film libraries", organized by the Filmoteca de Cantabria Mario Camus and held in Santander, from November 26 to 28, 2024. discussion paper "El cine doméstico no siembre es un rollo. guide de preservación de cine doméstico", position Salvador Vivancos, Nerea Moreno, Clara Sánchez Dehesa and Pedro Nogales.
"Giornate Internazionali del Film di Famiglia", organized by the association Re-framing home movies, Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo del MiC, Società Umanitaria - Cineteca Sarda di Cagliari, RI-PRESE and Fondazione Universitaria IUAV, held on December 15, 2024. discussion paper "Raccolta e relazione con il territorio e le comunità locale", position Julieta Keldjian Etchessarry.
conference "Imágenes frente al olvido: las filmotecas en la preservación del patrimonio audiovisual", held in La Laguna (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) on November 24, 2023, organized by Filmoteca Canaria, Patrimonio Cultural, Instituto Canario de development Cultural and Gobierno de Canarias. discussion paper "La status en España del cine doméstico como patrimonio audiovisual", position Efrén Cuevas Álvarez.
"XVI International congress of Anthropology ASAEE", organized by the association of Anthropology of the Spanish State (ASAEE) and held in A Coruña from 5 to 8 September 2023. Communication "The ethnographer's dream. Practices, representations and displacements of domestic cinema", presented by Juan de Dios López López and Ignacio Alcalde Sánchez.
conference "APEX Ecuador 2023. exchange Program for Audiovisual Preservation", held at the Cinemateca Nacional del Ecuador Ulises Estrella, in Quito, Ecuador, from May 22 to June 2, 2023, organized by the New York University Moving Image file and Preservation Program (NYU MIAP) and the Cineteca Nacional del Ecuador Ulises Estrella. discussion paper "Interdisciplinary Union for Domestic Cinema in Spain", position Clara Sánchez-Dehesa.
congress "XXVIII Visible Evidence Conference", held in Gdansk (Denmark), August 10-14, 2022, organized by the University of Gdansk. discussion paper "New Paths for Exploring "History from Below": Microhistorical Documentaries", a position by Efrén Cuevas.
lecture "The 'Little Apparatus': 100 Years of 9.5 mm", organized by the University of Southampton and held in Southampton (UK) from 16 to 18 June 2022. discussion paper "Erased Frames", position Salvador Vivancos López.
Exhibitions
exhibition "[Rec]cuerdos. Life through domestic cinema". CaixaForum. Opening: Zaragoza, February 27th, 2025. Curators: Efrén Cuevas and Núria F. Rius. Duration: 2025-2028, touring seven venues: Zaragoza, Valencia, Barcelona, Seville, Girona, Tarragona and Lleida.
XI Day of Domestic Cinema in Cartagena, in position Salvador Vivancos, programmed in the framework of the International Film Festival of Cartagena FICC 53 and held in Cartagena on October 19, 2024. https://ficc.es/xi-dia-del-cine-domestico
X Day of Domestic Cinema in Cartagena in position Salvador Vivancos, programmed in the framework of the International Film Festival of Cartagena FICC 52 and held in Cartagena on October 28, 2023. http://lareddelcinedomestico.com/contents/view/47
exhibition "Hecho en casa. Current domestic video art in Spain", held at the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Conde Duque in Madrid, from September 8 to November 19, 2023. Curator: Carlos Trigueros Mori.
meeting and cycle of screenings "Reappropriation of Domestic Cinema", position Salvador Vivancos, at the Cartagena International Film Festival FICC50, held in Cartagena from November 21 to 27, 2021.
Workshops
"Workshop on digital preservation in Super 8 and 8 mm", held at the file Municipal de Cartagena (Murcia) on October 27, 2023, taught by Clara Sanchez-Dehesa Galan and coordinated by Salvador Vivancos Lopez. http://lareddelcinedomestico.com/contents/view/46
"Workshop on digital preservation in Super 8 and 8 mm", held at the Municipal file of Cartagena (Murcia) on October 25, 2024, taught by Clara Sánchez-Dehesa Galán and coordinated by Salvador Vivancos López. filecartagena.es/detalle_actualidad.asp?id=80068&pagina=1&t=&d=&h
Audiovisual works
Documentary film "Veladuras" (Pilar Monsell (2022). Ethnographic research work for the film by Ignacio Alcalde Sánchez and Juan de Dios López López. Work presented in the sample of Visual Anthropology of the XVI International congress of Anthropology (September 8, 2023, A Coruña). Awards obtained: Xperimental award at the IX sample of Audiovisual Anthropology of Madrid (MAAM 2023) and Audience award at the IX sample of Audiovisual Anthropology of Madrid (MAAM 2023).