On Tuesday the 5th of March, the official ‘Out of Competition Documentary’ section screened ‘María y la película olvidada’, a project co-directed by Marta Hierro and Núria Abad which rescues from oblivion the life and work of María Forteza, considered to be the first filmmaker to direct a film with sound in Spain.

María Forteza’s story came to light when the Filmoteca Española, in the midst of lockdown, they opened up a film cannister — inside, they found Mallorca, a film that was different from what was being produced at the time, focussed on poetically praising the beauty of nature. And it had another peculiarity, too: it had sound. The can in which it was found was incorrectly dated and at first it was thought to be a silent film, and this only later proved note to be the case. It was a sound film, and it was made by a woman. At the time, the authorship was uncertain, which caused a great stir among researchers, academics and journalists. The reason? If the author really was María Forteza, it meant that the filmmaker was the pioneer of the beginnings of sound film in Spain.

Then began a great deal of research and archival documentation work that kept them in close collaboration with the Filmoteca Española and the Filmoteca Portuguesa, which made the film and its restoration resources available to them in order to carry out the project. Their research led them to Miguel Ángel Lozano, grandson of the protagonist. Thanks to this discovery, they were able to uncover more about this moment in cinema and what it represented for the role of women in Spanish cinema.

Both filmmakers have a long professional career and joined forces in 2014 to delve into the world of documentaries. 'For us, it’s very important to recover these stories that have been forgotten, and, by bringing them to light, rewrite history as we know it', they said.

'We’re interested in ‘anti-heroe’ stories, those heroes of cinema who have fallen into oblivion, both men and women; those who had prestige in their time and then fell into the unknown. It seems to us to be a reminder that, if this has already happened to other people, it can happen again', Marta Hierro said. Núria Abad added: 'These women teach us stories of survival, stories of adapting to the times. We all think that we’re the most modern we can be and that nobody can wipe us off the map. They thought so too, and ended up in oblivion'.

Now, at last, the story and work of María Forteza has been rescued from oblivion in the documentary María y la película olvidada, and we can get to know this pioneer of Spanish sound film a little better.