In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Martín and the second or maternal family name is Patino.
Basilio Martín Patino (29October 1930 – 13August 2017)[1] was a Spanish film director, specializing in a creative approach to documentary works. Patino produced pieces on the Spanish Civil War (Canciones para después de una guerra), the famous dictator (Caudillo), or his executioners (Queridísimos verdugos). He also produced fiction (Nueve cartas a Berta, Octavia).[2] Patino often experimented with new technologies, including digital tools, 3D, and offline editing.[3]
Basilio Martín Patino was born on 29 October 1930 in Lumbrales, a small rural town of Salamanca Province, Castile and León in Spain. He is son of Catholic professors and the younger brother of the well-known priest José María Martín Patino. He studied Philosophy and Letters at University of Salamanca, where he founded the University cinema club.[5]In 1955 he organized the celebrated Conversaciones de Salamanca, the first critical analysis of Spanish cinema, and he later moved to Madrid and enrolled in film school after graduating from university. He graduated from film school Escuela Oficial de Cine en Madrid in 1961 and soon after was met with censorship for his first short film, Torerillos (1963).[6]
In 1969 he shot "Del amor y otras soledades", mutilated by censorship, and in 1971 "Canciones para después de una guerra", a singular and moving critical radiography of the post-war period, which also suffered censorship for five years.[12]
In response, Martín Patino filmed "Querídisimos verdugos" (1973) and "Caudillo" (1977) in hiding. Caudillo is a documentary film that follows the military and political career of Francisco Franco and the most important moments of the Spanish Civil War. It uses footage from both sides of the war, music from the period and voice-over testimonies of various people.[13][14][15]
With the advent of democracy, the filmmaker founded his production company, La linterna mágica, from which he has alternated his fiction and documentary work with titles such as The Lost Paradise ("Los paraísos perdidos", 1985) screened at the 42nd Venice International Film Festival, "Madrid" (1987) and " Octavia" (2002).[16][17]
His production, although it has spread over time, has received tributes and has been the material for studies and cycles, such as the one dedicated to him by the Pompidou Center within a space dedicated to Spanish documentary, or the tribute paid in May 2005 by Documenta Madrid to someone considered one of the best Spanish documentary filmmakers.[18][19]
The Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences awarded the 2005 Gold Medal to the director, writer and researcher Basilio Martín Patino, whose work "represents the enduring values of the commitment to intelligent, complex cinema immersed in reality and evolution of a country"[20]
In 2012, he made his last film, the documentary film Libre te quiero (2012) about the camp of the 15-M movement in Madrid.[21]
An example of a free and rebellious filmmaker, Martín Patino leaves for history some of the most important titles of Spanish cinematography. Behind his elegance, calmness and shyness was hidden a fierce and determined attitude to make the movies he wanted, always on the margins, away from the industry, without caring about commercial successes. He died in Madrid at the age of 86 after a long degenerative disease.[22][23][24]
^Keller, Patricia (2013). "Letters from The City: Writing Boundaries in Nueve cartas a Berta (1965)". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 90 (8): 945–964. doi:10.3828/bhs.2013.57.
^Keller, Patricia (2013). "Letters from The City: Writing Boundaries in Nueve cartas a Berta (1965)". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 90 (8): 945–964. doi:10.3828/bhs.2013.57.
Pavlović, Tatjana (2008). "Los paraísos perdidos: Cinema of Return and Repetition (Basilio Martín Patino, 1985)". In Resina, Joan Ramon (ed.). Burning Darkness. A Half Century of Spanish Cinema. State University of New York Press. pp. 105–124. ISBN978-0-7914-7503-4.
