TVE - The Mexican Suitcase (2011) Free Download

TVE – The Mexican Suitcase (2011)
English | Documentary | Size: 1.57 GB

The incredible discovery of thousands of negatives of the Spanish Civil War provides a window into that war’s ongoing trauma in this exquisite documentary. Mexican Suitcase tells the story of the recovery of 4,500 negatives by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David ‘Chim’ Seymour taken during the Spanish Civil War found 70 years later in a closet in Mexico City. The film looks at the journey of these negatives from France to Mexico; their survival and looks at how Spain reflects today on its own history as well as those who escaped.
In 1939, the famous photographer Robert Capa is forced to flee from the relentless advance of the Nazi army on Paris, leaving in his studio three boxes of negatives that he captured- along with Gerda Taro and David Chim Seymour-during the Spanish Civil War. Capa will travel to New York, however, his photographic archive would have a more hazardous fate.
Seventy years later, among the belongings of a general, a suitcase will unexpectedly appear with more than four thousand still unpublished images. How did it get from Paris to Mexico City? Who risked their lives to save those photographs? This is the story of those negatives and the unexpected journey that took them across the Atlantic to become the greatest graphic testimony of Franco’s Spain.
Various theories about how the negatives made the long journey from Europe to Mexico are explored as Mexico’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War is uncovered. It is a unique story, and yet it is reflected in many other stories of survival and recovery, memory and loss, travel and exile. The story that begins in Paris, moves to Madrid, Barcelona, Marseille, returns to Paris and from there crosses the Atlantic to the port of Veracruz on its way to Mexico City, finally arriving in New York. A journey that lasts seventy years.
Two of the protagonist photographers in this story would become icons in the history of 20th century photography and photojournalism: David Seymour, known as Chim, and Andre Friedmann, who changed his name to Robert Capa, both founders of Magnum Photos. The third was Capa’s lover and editor, Gerda Pohrylle, who later called herself Gerda Taro.
Mexico was the only country to come to the rescue and support of the Spanish Republic and then honor and support the Republic in exile when the rest of the world turned its back. Mexican Suitcase looks at this unique story and these photos lost for seventy years.

Directed by Trisha Ziff ; A Mexican/Spanish Co-Production by Mallerich Films Paco Poch, S.L., 212 Berlin Film Production Studio with TVE Television Espanola

Leave a Comment Cancel reply