El oficio del etnógrafo

Synopsis

Eugenio Monesma was born in Huesca in 1952 and in 1983 he left his job to dedicate himself to filming professions on the verge of disappearing. Since then, it has gathered more than three thousand three hundred documentaries, one of the largest ethnographic archives in Spain. Work alone: ​​a large team makes the craftsman uncomfortable.

This piece follows him. At the production company in Huesca, in the office and among the hard drives where the work is digitized. In a blacksmith’s workshop. In San Juan de Plan, filming Elena Requejo at the loom of the Museo-Taller de las Artes Textiles and Roberto Serrano playing with the Orquestina del Fabirol. And in the mountain, which is where it started and where it returns.

Director’s note

The decision is easy to say and hard to sustain: film him as he films. Long shots, natural light, direct sound, his voice within the scene and not over it. Circular structure: he starts in the field, goes through the studio and back to the field, because that’s how his work works.

For forty years he has been entering workshops with a camera on his shoulder and documenting what others would let go. No one has ever documented their craft. The only way I could think of to explain him was with his own tools.

In post production.