White Bread, Black Bread. The Spanish postwar in Granada
The Instituto Cervantes in Manchester presents the documentary Pan blanco, pan negro. La posguerra desde Granada (White Bread, Black Bread. The Spanish postwar in Granada) was created by Peter Anderson, professor at the University of Leeds, Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco, professor at the University of Granada and Gustavo Bernal, an expert in communication. After the screening, there will be a short discussion with the authors to understand the research and creative process of the documentary.
Synopsis: White Bread, Black Bread. The Spanish Postwar from Granada
The documentary uses bread as a lens to examine the harsh post-war Civil War years in Spain. Many Spaniards endured severe hunger in the years 1939–1952 with famine afflicting Spain between 1939–1942 and again in 1946. In this context, bread became a symbol of the different fates of those from the victorious side (Francoists) and the defeated side (supporters of the Second Republic) in the Spanish Civil War. Despite great poverty, shortages and rationing, those from the victorious side enjoyed access to abundant and high-quality white bread. By contrast, those from the defeated side, who often hailed from poorer social groups and had identified with the Second Republic, endured long queues to receive rationed goods often made up of small quantities of adulterated ‘black’ bread of such poor quality it could be impossible to digest.
White and ‘black’ bread become the central themes in the documentary that takes us back to the 1940s and two villages in Granada province: Alfacar and Víznar (where supporters of General Franco murdered the playwright Federico García Lorca and 3,000 others). The researchers Miguel Ángel del Arco Blanco and Peter Anderson interview people who were involved in the production and distribution of bread in these village and who lived through the post-war years. As we learn about the way bread is made from milling to baking and to distribution, we also begin to uncover the harsh reality of the post-war years silenced by the Francoist dictatorship but which deserves to be told.
