Intermediality and Spanish experimental cinema: Text and image interactions in the lyrical films of the Barcelona School

This article aims to revalorize how an understudied Spanish experimental cinema movement known as the Barcelona School or EdB (1960-1970) resisted Franco's dictatorship through avant-garde filmmaking. The article applies media theory's concept of "intermediality" to analyze how the school's films mobilized political critique by engaging in "impure" media practices (such as the deployment of collage, montage and metalepsis), especially in regards to relations between text and image. It traces those same intermedial practices to the historic avant-gardes, as well as to the influence of contemporary movements such as Fluxus, the New York School or the Nouvelle Vague. After situating the EdB in the context of Spain's 1960s film scene, it explores how text-image interactions activate anti-Francoist discourse in three strikingly different films: Vicente Aranda's Fata Morgana (1965), José María Nunes' Sexperiencias (1968), and Pere Portabella's Nocturno 29 (1968). Concurrently, the essay presents the strong connection between the EdB's intermedial practices and political or counter-cultural resistance in Spain during the turmoil of the 1960s.