In her village of Cedillo de la Torre, in the province of Segovia, there was no cinema. But there was a small dance hall where, from time to time, a travelling company would project films.<\/p>\r\n
It was in that smoky hall filled with furtive kisses, holding her father\u2019s hand, that Esther Garc\u00eda saw her first film: none other than Tarantos<\/em>by Rovira Beleta. We do not know whether that little girl\u2019s powerful fascination had anything to do with it, but the fact is that Tarantos<\/em> went on to the Oscars.<\/p>\r\n Seen in retrospect, this is no small detail. Esther Garc\u00eda has walked the coveted red carpet in Los Angeles with several of the films she has produced \u2014 and it is quite possible, we hope, that she will do so again soon with Sirat<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n She entered the world of cinema almost by chance, balancing the books as a cashier and paymaster on film shoots during which women occupied the most silent, least illuminated corners of the frame.<\/p>\r\n We are talking about fifty years ago, when our cinema, with very few exceptions, like almost everything else in Spain at that time, was led by men. Men accustomed to patterns of authority which were in urgent need of revision.<\/p>\r\n This was the world in which Esther Garc\u00eda arrived, bringing with her all her superpowers: empathy, talent, beauty, strength and a fierce desire to learn.<\/p>\r\n She began her career in 1975 \u2014 a turning point in Spain\u2019s history \u2014 working with Pedro Olea on Pim, pam, pum\u2026 fuego<\/em>. That film was followed by the TVE series Curro Jim\u00e9nez<\/em>, Los binguero<\/em>s<\/em> by Mariano Ozores, S\u00e9 infiel y no mires con qui\u00e9n<\/em> and El a\u00f1o de las luces<\/em> by Fernando Trueba, La vida alegre<\/em> by Fernando Colomo, El pecador impecable<\/em> by Augusto Mart\u00ednez Torres, and the TVE series Los pazos de Ulloa<\/em> by Gonzalo Su\u00e1rez \u2014 as well as other television projects with Mario Camus and Pilar Mir\u00f3.<\/p>\r\n It is easy to imagine how her kind, precise and persevering way of working soon captivated every director and crew she encountered.<\/p>\r\n I do not think it is any exaggeration to say that, at that precise moment, Spanish cinema began to change.<\/p>\r\n Over the course of her extensive career, Esther has received numerous prestigious awards. Some, such as the National Film Award and the Donostia Award, which the San Sebasti\u00e1n Film Festival presented to her only two months ago, have shone their light for the first time on a certain discipline, production<\/u>, rarely recognised with such outstanding honours.<\/p>\r\n Helping to showcase the authorship and decisive creative contribution of producers, illuminating a profession that so often remains in the shadows, is yet another of Esther\u2019s invaluable contributions to this complex art of filmmaking.<\/p>\r\n A large slice of her career and life has been linked to brothers Pedro and Agust\u00edn Almod\u00f3var, with whom she has worked continuously since the filming of Matado<\/em>r<\/em> in 1986. Nearly forty years together, encompassing some of the most important and internationally acclaimed titles in Spanish cinema: La ley del deseo<\/em>, Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios<\/em>, \u00c1tame<\/em>, La flor de mi secreto<\/em>, Todo sobre mi madre<\/em>, Hable con ella<\/em>, La mala educaci\u00f3n<\/em>, Volver<\/em>, Los abrazos rotos<\/em>, La piel que habito<\/em>, Dolor y gloria<\/em>, Madres paralelas<\/em>, La habitaci\u00f3n de al lado <\/em>\u2026 and Amarga navidad<\/em>, due for release next year.<\/p>\r\n Beyond all the films directed by Pedro Almod\u00f3var since 1986, Esther Garc\u00eda has also led the production of other filmmakers\u2019 works through El Deseo: Acci\u00f3n mutante<\/em> by \u00c1lex de la Iglesia, Tengo una casa<\/em> by M\u00f3nica Laguna, El espinazo del diablo<\/em> by Guillermo del Toro, Pasajes<\/em> by Daniel Calparsoro, Mi vida sin m\u00ed<\/em>, La vida secreta de las palabras<\/em>and Nieva en Benidorm by Isabel Coixet, El patio de mi c\u00e1rcel<\/em>by Bel\u00e9n Mac\u00edas, and Sirat<\/em> by \u00d3liver Laxe, selected to represent Spain at the upcoming Oscars.<\/p>\r\n Her unwavering commitment to building bridges between countries includes significant collaborations with Argentine productions such as Relatos salvajes<\/em> by Dami\u00e1n Szifron, El \u00faltimo verano de la Boyita<\/em> by Julia Solomonoff, and La ni\u00f1a santa<\/em>, La mujer rubia<\/em>and Zama<\/em>by Lucrecia Martel.<\/p>\r\n An active member of CIMA (the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media), her social and feminist engagement has also found an eloquent mirror in documentary filmmaking. Con la pata quebrada<\/em>and Manda huevos, both directed by Diego Gal\u00e1n, offer meticulous analyses of gender roles in Spanish cinema. El silencio de otros<\/em>, by Almudena Carracedo \u2014 filmed over more than six years \u2014 addresses another of Esther Garc\u00eda\u2019s enduring concerns: historical memory.<\/p>\r\n \u201cNot one step back, comrades!\u201d she cried from the stage of the Kursaal, holding up her Donostia award in September.<\/p>\r\n Not one step back.<\/p>\r\n Thank you, Esther.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\t You have had to invent new rules to get where you are today. You have shown that it is possible to coordinate hundreds of crews without raising your voice. That dialogue is the truest foundation of authority. That no problem is alien to you. That passion, care and enthusiasm are contagious. That we are all essential when working towards a common goal. And that cinema really can move the world.<\/p>\r\n Paz Sufrategui<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In her village of Cedillo de la Torre, in the province of Segovia, there was no cinema. But there was a small dance hall where, from time to time, a travelling company would project films. It was in that smoky hall filled with furtive kisses, holding her father\u2019s hand, that Esther Garc\u00eda saw her first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41687,"parent":369,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/page-hero-mikeldi.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41721","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41721"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42026,"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41721\/revisions\/42026"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zinebi.eus\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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