The Galician Film Archive presents a special session next Tuesday, May 26, at 8:30 PM in the José Sellier room in A Coruña, dedicated to the recovery of five short films produced by the A Coruña native Víctor Ruppen between 1975 and 1977. The screenings, part of the "Materials for a History of Cinema in Galicia" section, will feature new digital restorations of the following films: Fendetestas, Illa, The Heir, The Coffin, and Miguel's Father.*Fendetestas*, *Illa*, *O herdeiro*, *O cadaleito*, and *O pai de Migueliño*, in a project carried out by the Government of Galicia in collaboration with the Spanish Film Archive.The session, which is free of charge, will feature people associated with the films' teams and with the circle and family of Víctor Ruppen (A Coruña, 1940-2018), a key figure in understanding a decisive period in the quest for a Galician cinema with continuity, professional ambition, and a willingness to engage with its audience.A building engineer by training, he produced a total of seven films and was a partner in the Valle-Inclán theater chain in Santiago de Compostela, Alphaville in Madrid, and the distributors Musidora and Videogram. After supporting projects on Super 8, Víctor Ruppen promoted the move to professional formats starting in 1975, with work in 16mm and 35mm that provided filmmakers of the time with new production and distribution opportunities.A Unique Block from the 1970sThe program proposed by the Galician Film Archive recovers five titles that, from different authorships and perspectives, shared the impulse to produce films in Galician and in formats capable of overcoming the amateur marginality at a time of special cultural and political effervescence.The first of Tuesday's screenings will be Fendetestas, directed by Antonio F. Simón in 1975 and shot on 35 mm, a film about a man who, due to the social circumstances of the 1940s, is forced to become a highwayman. Following it, you can watch Illa, by Carlos A. López Piñeiro, about a young fisherman's resistance to leaving an increasingly touristy island. They will be followed by The Heir, by Miguel Gato, the journey of a grandson who returns to the village to take charge of his grandfather's inheritance; The Coffin, by Enrique Baixeras, which explores social relationships in the Galician countryside, and O pai de Migueliño, by Miguel Castelo, which recounts a young man's memories before emigrating.Over time, these works have acquired a unique status within Galician cinema, both for their willingness to incorporate elements of Galician cultural identity and for the decision to build a sustained production around the short film format.Preservation and Dissemination of Audiovisual HeritageThe presentation of these digital restorations is part of the Filmoteca de Galicia's work in the recovery, preservation, and promotion of Galician audiovisual heritage. Thus, the Xunta's audiovisual center undertook the complete redigitalization of Illa, while the rest of the titles are the result of a collaboration with the Spanish Film Archive, where all the original negatives were stored. This joint effort made it possible to restore these films, facilitating their return to the screen in renewed condition and guaranteeing their future preservation.Through the "Materials for a History of Cinema in Galicia" continuity section, the Galician film archive maintains a programming line focused on revisiting films, archives, and documents fundamental to understanding the evolution of Galician audiovisual creation.
