Screening followed by a Q&A with Prof. Paul Preston and film-maker Trisha Ziff chaired by Dr. Federico Bonaddio (King’s College)
The Mexican Suitcase (2011) is a Spanish-Mexican documentary film directed by Trisha Ziff. The film tells the story of the 4,500 negatives taken by the prestigious photographers Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David “Chim” Seymour during the Spanish Civil War. These files remained for a long time in unknown whereabouts, until they were recovered in Mexico City in the 70s. The film also reveals the role played by Mexico during the Civil War and the support offered to the Spanish Republic in exile.
The Mexican Suitcase was nominated for Best Documentary in the 2011 edition of the Gaudi Awards and for Best Soundtrack at the Ariel Awards the same year.
Prof. Paul Preston (Liverpool, 1946) is one of the most prominent British Hispanists, author of various works on the contemporary history of Spain. Together with Raymond Carr and Hugh Thomas, he has been one of the leading British historians dedicated to the study of recent Spanish history, especially that of the Second Republic and the Civil War. Since 1991 is Príncipe de Asturias Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies and director of the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies.
Trisha Ziff is a English born film director and artistic photography curator who currently resides in Mexico City. Ziff has exhibited his work at Victoria and Albert Hall in London, the California Photography Museum, the International Center for Photography (ICP) in New York and the Mexico City Image Center. As curator, she has organized Mexican photography exhibitions about Sangriento Domingo from Úlster, the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda’s series on Che Guevara and the snapshots of Mexican Maya Goded. Her filmography includes documentaries such as Chevolution (2008) or The Man Who Saw Too Much (2015), which won two Ariel awards in 2016 (best documentary feature film and best original score). Her new film Witkin & Witkin will be premier at the Morelia International Film Festival.
Screening in Spanish with English subtitles, talk in English.
This event is a collaboration between the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies, the Centre of Mexican Studies UNAM, the Modern Language Centre, King’s College London and the Instituto Cervantes.
More info here
