A well, a bucket, and a rope to fetch water. Firewood before gas. A draft animal performing the role that the automobile would assume decades later. Houses where working with llata (a type of coarse woolen cloth) was part of daily life. Boats and fishing vessels that supported entire families. Women without the same rights as men. Neighbors who crossed the Atlantic to make a living. And, in contrast to all of that, the Marina Alta of today.
Col·lectiu Mirades has published the trailer for the feature-length documentary by Arrels Vives, the centerpiece of a broad audiovisual project dedicated to reconstructing the profound social, economic and cultural transformations experienced by the Valencian people during the last century.
After revealing the progress of the seven short films that make up the Arrels Vives universe, the production company now shows a first approach to the story that encompasses them.
The trailer condenses into a few minutes some of the key issues that underpin the entire project: the disappearance of traditional trades, the abandonment of certain ways of life, the modernization of homes, the transformation of the territory, the historical inequality between men and women, emigration and, especially, the concern to transmit the knowledge of older people before it disappears with them.
Seven villages now converge into a single story
The release of the trailer allows for a better understanding of the global scope of a project that, until now, has been revealed primarily town by town. Arrels Vives is made up of a feature-length documentary and seven short films dedicated respectively to Dénia, Gata de Gorgos, Pedreguer, El Verger, Els Poblets, Poble Nou de Benitatxell and Xaló.
The trailers for the seven short films have already been released. However, while each of these pieces delves into the memory and particularities of a place, the feature film broadens the perspective and connects these experiences to construct a larger narrative.
The production dossier precisely defines Arrels Vives as a compilation of stories and experiences from those who have witnessed the great transformations of the last century, paying special attention to a history and traditions that still remain alive, but resist disappearing.
The starting premise is compelling: the changes experienced by the society Valencian culture during the last century has transformed lifestyles at a speed that is difficult to compare with previous centuries. To document it, the production has mainly relied on those who can explain it without intermediaries: the people who lived in that other Marina Alta.
When turning on a tap wasn't an everyday gesture
One of the strengths of the new trailer lies in showing the magnitude of the transformation through seemingly small elements. The evolution of daily life can also be measured by observing how water was obtained, how homes were heated, or how people and goods were transported.
The testimonies recall a time when having water meant resorting to wells, buckets and ropesFirewood provided the energy that would later be replaced by other sources, such as butane gas. And animals were essential for transportation, carrying loads, and working the land. "The animal was comparable to the car of today," summarizes one of the testimonies of the progress.
Trades that were necessary for centuries
Modernization not only changed domestic comforts. It also profoundly altered the relationship of peoples with their territory. The trailer, for example, brings back the figure of the acequiero or sequier, a profession historically linked to the distribution and management of water that has practically disappeared.
It also highlights activities whose value extended beyond their economic yield. Livestock farming is one example. One of the testimonies emphasizes the role of goats in clearing the undergrowth, bringing to the forefront a relationship between human activity, livestock farming, and land conservation that for generations formed part of the rural balance.
La crafts It constitutes another of those threatened worlds. Can It reappears in the feature film as a symbol of an activity that was once a daily occurrence in many homes in the region and that today needs specific initiatives to ensure its preservation.
This is knowledge that for generations didn't need to be documented because it was passed down within families. Parents and grandparents taught their children and grandchildren. When that chain is broken, knowledge stops being automatically passed from one generation to the next. This is one of the fundamental reasons for the existence of Arrels Vives: to transform audiovisual media into a new transmission tool when traditional learning mechanisms are disappearing.
The decline of a world linked to the sea
The transformation can also be expressed through figures. One of the testimonials included in the trailer recalls the decline experienced by fishing activity and points out that Of a census of 40 boats, 15 currently remain..
Added to this is the disappearance of the so-called fishing piers, infrastructures historically linked to the exploitation of the sea. According to the account included in the report, there were once more than 80 of them, and they all eventually disappeared. Fishing, along with the farmingCrafts and livestock farming are among the areas the project uses to rebuild the economy prior to modernization.
The report explains that a few decades ago, a large part of the rural population lived directly from activities linked to the natureThis dependence also generated a particular relationship with the environment, since the land and the sea provided a good part of the resources necessary to live.
"No equality whatsoever"
Arrels Vives also does not present that traditional society from an idealized perspective. The trailer introduces another of the film's fundamental themes: the inequality suffered by women and the enormous transformation experienced by their rights and their social position.
José Gayà's directorial statement specifically identifies the recovery of women's historical role as a fundamental element of the film. The project emphasizes their essential role in the family economy. They worked in the fields and in factories while simultaneously taking on the responsibilities of raising children, doing housework, caring for the elderly, and, in many cases, managing the household finances.
Emigration and the need to "make a living"
The new trailer also incorporates another experience that marked many families: emigration. Leaving to "make a living" appears in the testimonies as a survival strategy, and America as one of the destinations for those who had to leave their homeland in search of opportunities.
Emigration introduces another dimension to a history that cannot be explained solely by observing what was happening within the towns. The contemporary Marina Alta is also a consequence of those who left, those who returned, and the experiences, resources, and new ways of thinking that these population movements brought to the communities of origin.
A race against time to hear from the last generation who can tell the tale
There is a circumstance that gives the project a particularly urgent dimension. Some of the women interviewed were over one hundred years old. It's not just about recovering old memories. These are testimonies from a disappearing generation, one of the last direct sources for reconstructing certain ways of life in the 20th century.
The reality of that race against time became evident during the production itself. Three of its main actors died during filming: Maria Crespo, from Pedreguer, at 101 years old; Rosa Ginesta, from Gata de Gorgos, at 100; and Angelita Castells, from Xaló, at 97. The documentary is dedicated to them.
For the director, older people are the film's main source of inspiration. Rescuing their experiences and knowledge thus becomes a way of preserving historical documentation that would otherwise disappear with them.
