HANS FLEISCHNER / TRACING TRACES / BARCELONA 1938 / About And Together With EDUARD OLIVELLA

The meeting between us started out with a very innocent question. 'What are you doing here?'  That was end of September 2013 in Portbou, Catalunya. A few days later we met in Barcelona again. Eduard introduced some galleries to me and showed me the city. Just in passing he told me about a TV series, he had worked for as a still photographer and just as casually he told me, how for one scene the director had asked him to act like a war photographer. He was made up and dressed to look the part, was given a 1930's Leica to walk around with and to act like a photographer, taking photographs. Eduard thought, I am a photographer, put in a roll of black and white film and took photographs, like in a real life situation. The result were photographs as if they had been taken in 1938. 'I want to see those negatives', I said. 'Come to my place'. Address, Metro stop, some directions and the next day I was on my way. Eduard switched on the light box, placed the negatives on it and let me have a look. I was born 1948, so was Eduard, but the Civil War in Spain was part of our lives, if not in equal parts, then still very much so, with a maybe quite significant difference. I heard from my father stories, he had experienced, seen, heard about, while being in Spain from 1937 till 1939, as a member of the International Brigades. Eduard was surrounded by silence. When I saw those negatives from a reenacted scene, showing the effects of the bombing of Barcelona in 1938, I just said, 'That must be a movie!' In March 2014 I went back to Barcelona and we started the movie. In the process of doing so and talking to people, more and more doors opened and windows, too and of course more and more people joined us in making this movie. We just filmed our last interview and are starting with an offline edit, with a few more short clips to be filmed, now and in early summer. 

Hans Fleischner, Barcelona 2015