Last October 7th was released the long-awaited compilation Del éxtasis al arrebato (From ecstasy to rapture), a 2-DVD set published by Cameo comprising 31 experimental short films made in Spain in the last fifty years, with nearly four hours of footage. This edition functions as a kind of catalogue for the touring exhibition Del éxtasis al arrebato. 50 años del otro cine español, a joint production by the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB, Contemporary Culture Centre of Barcelona) and the Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior (SEACEX, State Society for Spanish Cultural Action Abroad) and that will tour several countries during the next three years. Both retrospective and DVD set are a unique chance to access that fringe cinema, almost unknown, a cinema 'in perpetual embryonic state), according to Eugeni Bonet and Manuel Palacio.

The set's subtitle makes its intentions clear: Un recorrido por el cine experimental español/A journey through spanish experimental cinema. “A journey”, one among the many possibilities, uncountable combinations that one could behold. Though the concept of 'experimental film' may cover a wide range of formulations and intentions, this particular journey is made through a narrow and well-delimited ground. Most of the works included in these DVDs originate from a will to experiment with, to investigate the moving image for itself, leaving out many other approaches, also valid, but that delve into other genres such as documentary films. A quick look at the contents of both retrospecctive and DVD set is enough to realize the different approaches of each: The retrospective is open to different "genres" and formats, including pieces made in video.

The cronologic journey starts with Film Experiencia I. Base teórica: Interactividad del espacio plástico (1957) by the multidisciplinary group Equipo 57, an experiment on the space-colour as described in their Theory of Interactivity, filming several gouache paitings made by several members of the group. This work finds its counterpoint in Pintura 1962-1963 (1962-63) by Ton Sirera, who uses the filming of a painting's evolution to transfer his enquiries on abstract painting to the moving image. The relationship between paiting and cinema is a common theme in many of the selected films, from the previous examples of filmed paintings to those that use the frame as a canvas, such as Exp.nº 1 (1958) and Exp.II (1959) by Joaquim Puigvert, the Ritmes cromàtics (1978) by Jordi Artigas (both of them highly influenced by McLaren) or the transformation of the canvas into film that Antoni Pinent makes in GIOCONDA/FILM (1999). A similar effect as a painting manages to create Manuel Huerga in Brutal ardour (1979), through refilming and slowing down the image, exploring the frame, in a similar process to Ken Jacobs's Tom Tom the piper’s son.

The clearest examples of a structuralist influence in the 70's cinema are Eugeni Bonet's Photomatons (1976), whose work with the single-frame, double-projection, and his use of sound remind us of the feeling of alienation of the modern city; and in Eugènia Balcells's Boy meets girl (1978) where she confronts cliché images from men and women extracted from mass-media. Travelling (1972) by Lluís Rivera is a reflection on cinema and its creation process through a tour of the human and technical elements that make it possible.. It's a work very close to structuralism, which finds its closest parallel in the more recent film Farce sensationelle! (2004) by Laida Lertxundi, centered in the essential binomial camera-filmmaker. Other films such as Carles Durán's BiBiCi Story (1969) and Antoni Miralda y Benet Rossell's Miserere (1978) are in the boudary between film and performance. The set's closing piece, Copy Scream (2005) by Oriol Sánchez, is an interesting work on surface and texture, throuhg repetititon/refilming in Super-8 film of a photocopy animation.

Cameo appears to have out a lot of care in every detail of this edition, being worthy of notice that it's bilingual in Spanish and English: presentation, texts, DVD menus... The image quality of the films is excelent, with a few exceptions: Juan Bufill's minimalist pieces and Manuel Huerga's Brutal ardour, which seem to come from tape copies. Most of the films have been restored, thanks to an extensive work done by the Filmoteca de Catalunya. One of the wakest aspects in this edition is the book, containing excerpts and quotations from many different sources, but that fail to give a coherent view of the works and filmmakers. One would've preferred a much slimmer book but with texts written specifically for this edition.

The content of Del éxtasis al arrebato may have been very different, if this project hadn't met several difficulties, specially in the access to the works. Several noticeable absences are due to the preparation of other specific retrospectives; other absences come from commercial interests or the filmmer's rejection to see his work published in a digital media. The fact that two sgnificant works such as Espectro siete and Impresiones en la alta atmósfera both just a few minutes long, are present here as excerpts “selected by the author” is a clear sign of the reticences of some artists to see their works published in a media for mass consumption. Where the criteria of selection for this anthology is more questionable, and more evident the subjectivity of the curators is in the works selected for the last couple of decades: just half a dozen of films for twenty years, and some of them would have problems to be labelled as 'experimental'.

One of the historical problems in Spanish cinema has been the lack of suitable means, of production and distribution. It's a very difficult task to have access to these works in their original format: they're dispersed in regional cinematheques, recently in museums and art galleries, and many times in the hands of the filmmakers themselves; the lack of venues interested in showing this kind of cinema in a constant and regular way doesn't help either. There isn't any publicly or privately supported institutions that may effectively promote it (except for the exception that is Xcèntric, with their screening sessions and multimedia archives). Those are the reasons that make this edition, however imperfect, a real milestone, bringing this hidden cinema to the public, making it accessible, and that could serve as a teaching tool for film schools.

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