Monday, June 06, 2016

A treasure trove

No-Do newsreels were shown in Spanish cinemas from 1942 to 1981.

The former state-controlled operation, which was closely associated with the Francisco Franco dictatorship, produced 4,018 films in all and only seven have been lost.

No-Do – which stood for Noticias y documentales (news and documentaries) – was more than just a producer of news shorts. The agency also put together Imágenes, a light feature program, and looked after historical recordings, including the royal archive of King Alfonso XIII (1886-1931).

Now, state broadcaster RTVE and the Filmoteca Española Spanish film archive have provided free online access to a trove of recordings and documentaries produced by No-Do. The searchable database contains 6,573 files and 1,719 hours of video footage.

For those who are seeking information about this period of Spain's history, this is an invaluable resource.

You will also find a selection of free-to-view Spanish films on the site.

The archive

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