Everything the No-Do didn't explain

One of the premieres of La 1 is the documentary program The secret files of the NO-DO, a program from Minoría Absoluta that explores the archives of the Spanish Film Archive. There are more than six thousand cans of film that were not used in the propaganda newsreel of the Franco regime, material discarded for various reasons. Therefore, this is not about resurrecting the most curious fragments of the newscast, nor about listening to the voice of Francoism, that of Matías Prats Cañete, grandfather of the lineage of journalists, narrating Franco's adventures and the scenes from the dictatorship.

This is unedited and unsound material. A current look at all these images attempts to uncover the reasons why they were rejected. Several journalists and academics reflect on what we see. This is not about romanticizing the era, offering a nostalgic analysis, or humorizing it. The attempt is to understand the broadcast criteria based on the discarded material, to ascertain what was happening in Spain and what, in the end, the regime's propagandists considered best left unseen.

Of course, this is pure speculation, as there is no evidence or documentary evidence of the reasons why many of the cans were relegated to oblivion. For example, we see images of the arrival of a train with dozens of Spanish workers returning from Germany, where they had emigrated to earn a living. We see them rushing to unload their suitcases from the carriage and reuniting with their families. Why did the No-Do consider it best left unseen? Perhaps because it was evidence of the regime's economic failure. There's also a very sordid sequence: a parade of women in bathing suits in a tavern, the Corral de la Morería. While they stroll half-naked, scrutinized by the waiters, elegant men and women eat and observe the models. These painful scenes demonstrate the most rancid machismo of the time, and perhaps those responsible for No-Do considered them inappropriate from the conservative perspective of the time. It's hard to understand why they eliminated magnificent images of Maria Callas's arrival at Bilbao Airport, where she had performed, but experts recall that her relationship with Onassis was considered adulterous, contrary to Catholic morals.

The secret files of the NO-DO It's entertaining because it can't help but provoke perplexity about life during Franco's regime, but it does so through a reading that has to do with everything the regime didn't approve of. It's another way of spreading awareness about the history of Spain and its darkest past. Now, don't be fooled: the discarded footage isn't that different from what was ultimately shown in the No-Do. And just seeing the images is like hearing Matías Prats's voice.