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José Ernesto Díaz-Noriega Collection
José Ernesto Díaz-Noriega was an amateur filmmaker, exhibitor and collector. Born in Barcelona in 1912, he died in Madrid in 2002, after having spent much of his life in A Coruña, where he trained many young Galician filmmakers during the 1970s.
Díaz-Noriega’s archive, preserved by his family, comprises both his own films and those of other filmmakers (all in substandard formats: 8 mm, 18 mm, and Super 8 mm). It also contains a large quantity of graphic and text-based documents. In 2021, part of the film collection—housed at Filmoteca Española—was incorporated into ‘Second Hand. Reuse and deviations of Ibero-American cinema’, a research project conducted at EQZE, where it was studied and partially digitised.
The project was carried out in collaboration with Filmoteca de Galicia and Filmoteca Española.
Las ninfas de la charca
Year: 1935
Running time: 5 min.
Original element: 8 mm, acetate, black and white, one roll, reversible positive with a post-striped magnetic soundtrack.
In an ironic imitation of Busby Berkeley's musical films, a group of young people have fun on the banks of a river near Madrid
Note: The post-stripe was a later addition to the image recording (added at an indeterminate date).
Revista 8
Year: 1939
Running time: 36 min.
Original element: 8 mm, acetate, black and white, one roll, copy of the image and post-striped magnetic soundtrack
Sequences filmed during the Spanish Civil War. One was shot by the filmmaker while he was a prisoner (José Ernesto Díaz-Noriega).
Note: The film is made up of several independent films by Díaz-Noriega, grouped here under the subtitle ‘Apuntes del 36 al 39’. The original material is in poor condition, and a large portion of the magnetic strip is missing, so the sound could not be fully recovered. Digital restoration carried out at Laboratorio Numax in 2023.
Trailer (Banderas victoriosas)
Year: 1939
Running time: 3 min.
Edition: José Ernesto Díaz-Noriega, Ramón García Ortiz
Sound: Dorrell
Original element: 8 mm, acetate, black and white, one roll, reversible positive with a post-striped magnetic soundtrack
The same year that Díaz-Noriega filmed the documentary Banderas victoriosas. El desfile de la victoria about Francisco Franco's parade through the streets of Madrid on 19 May 1939, he also made this ‘cinematic artefact’ that imitates a trailer for that same film. Although the work insinuates that it is a summary of a longer film, the satirical use of editing and the inclusion of scenes that do not correspond to the original film render it autonomous and slightly delusional (Carolina Cappa).
Note: The original photochemical material is not in great condition and parts of the magnetic strip are missing, meaning that the sound could not be fully recovered. Digital restoration carried out at Laboratorio Numax in 2023.
Sever odnum
Year: 1964
Running time: 4 min.
Collaboration: R. Luca de Tena
Original element: 8 mm, acetate, black and white, one roll. Reversible positive with a post-striped magnetic soundtrack
A cinematic diversion in which the filmmakers parody the pretentious and contentless films that competed in the “II Festival de Cine de Humor de La Coruña” and were presented by the Catalans Font and Pruna (Xoan Cuesta and Xosé María Folgar de la Calle).
Al-Nasr Al Tair
Year: 1969
Running time: 48 min.
Camera work and production: Felipe L. Fernández
Sound: Antonio Iglesias
Original element: Super 8, acetate, colour, one roll, reversible positive with a post-striped magnetic soundtrack
An institutional commission whose end results largely subvert the intentions of the contracting party, in this case the Carballo City Council, which, during a tribute to a Francoist air force general named Eduardo Pardo, commissioned Díaz-Noriega to cut together images of the ceremony to make a propaganda film. Armed with his irreverent sense of humour, José Ernesto disregarded the synchronisation between sound and image, putting voiceovers from advertisements or outbursts taken out of context into the mouths of the local authorities (Xan Gómez Viñas).
Note: Digital restoration carried out at Laboratorio Numax in 2023.
El anillo
Year: 1973
Running time: 20 min.
Featuring: Teresa Suárez, José Ernesto Díaz-Noriega
Collaboration: Fernando R. Gómez
Technical engineering: R. Villalva.
Original element: 8 mm, acetate, black and white, one roll, reversible positive with a post-striped magnetic soundtrack
The wedding of Díaz-Noriega's son, José Ernesto, and his fiancée, Teresa. Preparations, ceremony and honeymoon. The film is dedicated to the filmmaker's four children and includes fragments of previous family films made by Díaz-Noriega himself, in a disjointed mishmash of flashbacks and present-day footage (Carolina Cappa).
Os suevos
Urtea: 1974
Running time: 53 min.
Featuring: Mary Carmen, Paula, Beatriz and Andrés L. Suevos; Paco Hernández, Pepita, Miguel Gato
Elementu originala: Super 8, acetate, color, 1 roll, reversible positive with magnetic soundtrack
An official working at a Provincial Ministerial Delegation commissions a filmmaker and colleague to make a film about his daughters. The filmmaker agrees but portrays both the girls and their circumstances: their grandparents, their mother, the office where the official works and the political life of 1974. This film is a tribute to Lubitsch (José Ernesto Díaz-Noriega).
All these films were digitized at Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola by the team of the research project 'Second Hand. Reuse and deviations of Ibero-American cinema' during the 2021-2022 Academic Year.