The films of Pere Portabella have a cinematic voice of compelling urgency that is rooted deeply in the Catalan experience. They eloquently advocate individual and democratic liberty. 

A collaborator with Luis Buñuel and a fervid critic of General Francisco Franco, Portabella is remarkable for his rich and revolutionary approach to filmmaking in both its formal and political concerns. 

Portabella's radical experimentation with the limits and conventions of image, sound and genre is echoed in his eloquent critique of state repression and political indifference. His use of structural materialist devices to loosen the bond between image and referent serves to focus the viewer's attention on their role in the political and cultural processes of the circulation of meaning. 

His films have witnessed the creative process by which a constitution and a country have come into being, a country whose most esteemed cultural figures - from Buñuel to Joan Brossa, Carles Santos and Joan Miró - have been close collaborators with Portabella. Portabella has laid bare the language of cinema, overriding convention to create a powerful cinema of survival. 

This survey of his remarkable films is presented in parallel with Miró, and includes two carte blanche screenings selected by Portabella: Luis Buñuel’s Viridiana (1961), which Portabella produced, and José María de Orbe’s Aita (2010).

Pere Portabella will be joined in conversation with Mark Nash and Tate Modern Director Chris Dercon following the 6.30pm screening on 29 June.

Organised by Stuart Comer, Curator: Film and Mark Nash, Professor and Head of the Department Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London.

All films shown in Starr Auditorium
£5 (£4 concessions) per session
Season ticket available £30 / £20 concessions, please ring 020 7887 8888 to book a season ticket.