The cinema venues I’ll never go back to

Soon to be approved the new Catalan cinema law that makes it compulsory that at least 50% of the movies in Catalan cinema venues to be translated into Catalan is causing strong reactions. First the Hollywood majors complained, as they always do, arguing that movies in Catalan are not in demand but the law went on to be passed. Personally, I think so far this is the only law that the current government has passed this term that I believe to make a bit of sense. It is unacceptable that in Catalonia we don’t have the right to watch movies in our own language be them dubbed or subtitled.

Even a Swiss newspaper went on to compare this law to a law Franco passed in 1941 forcing all movies in Catalonia to be dubbed into Spanish (link in German). This is a sample of the general ignorance with regards to the reality of Catalan culture, especially since the “official” tale of the story tends to come from the Spanish. Reactions from Catalonia were strong and they actually rectified by publishing 5 of the ones they received, and I thank them for that. One of the responses was written by the always brilliant Col·lectiu Emma, the newspaper titled it: “A nation with its own language and culture” (link in German).

Since Spanish is a language that was forced into our country I believe all normal communications and media like newspapers, TVs and of course cinema should be in Catalan, and laws should be passed so that this anomaly we live on now is redirected and not enough has been done so far. The current situation is only a result of Franco’s regime and a false “transition” to this thing the Spanish call “democracy” we live in that never restored the rights Catalans lost 300 years ago.

Here’s the list of cinemas that in protest for this law are planning to close next monday, and here’s the facebook group that is organizing a boycott against this initiative until they publicly apologize for this attitude of disrespect towards Catalan culture.

Another reason why we need independence as soon as possible, a matter of dignity and respect. In the meantime, those cinemas have at least lost one customer.