The Vall de Gallinera Town Council, in collaboration with the Unió Cultural d'Amics i Amigues de la Vall de Gallinera (Cultural Association of Friends of Vall de Gallinera), has organized a special program to mark International Women's Day. The initiative, which will take place on March 14th, combines cultural, educational, and historical activities with the aim of highlighting the role of women throughout history.
Among the planned events, the presentation of a new publication dedicated to the figure of Anita Giner, a work prepared by Joan Miquel Almela and edited by the Municipal Council with the collaboration of the Unió Cultural d'Amics i Amigues de la Vall de Gallinera, the Institut Valencià de Culture and the Valencian Film Library.
A biography to rescue Anita Giner from oblivion
The book, entitled Anita Giner. The star of the Valencian cinema of the anys vintIt traces the life and career of a woman whose life went through some of the most turbulent episodes of the 20th century.
Anita Giner was born in Vilallonga and was an actress in cinema Valencian silent film, directed by Maximiliano Thous, one of the pioneers of the audiovisual sector in the Valencian Community. Beyond his artistic career, he participated in the defense of the Republic during the Spanish Civil War. Later, he married one of the founders of the British Communist Party.
After the Civil War, she went into exile in London. Years later, life took her back to Valencian lands, where she finally settled as a resident of Benialí, in the Vall de Gallinera, concluding a life marked by political commitment, exile, and artistic creation.
The City Council has emphasized that the publication does not intend solely to narrate a history local, but also rethinking the history of cinema from a critical and decolonizing perspectivegiving the place they deserve to women who have been made invisible in official narratives.
A cultural day on March 14th
The commemorative program will be concentrated on March 14th in different parts of the municipality.
In Benirrama, at the Centre Social L'Era, at 11:30 am, the following will be performed: , Children's movement for freedom and equality "Lisa's game", a proposal aimed at a younger audience with a pedagogical focus on equality values.
In the afternoon, the events will move to Benialí, to the Town Hall building. The conference will take place at 17:30 p.m. «Donations to the 13th century. Poetesses», led by Dr. Irene Ballester, from the University of Valencia, focusing on the role of female creators in the Middle Ages.
The day will culminate at 19:00 p.m. with the book presentation «Anita Giner. The star of Valencian cinema of any vintage, in an event that will feature the participation of Joan Miquel Almela Cots and Vicent Morera.
Anita Giner Soler, Valencian actress of mut cinema (Vilallonga, 1902 – Benialí, La Vall de Gallinera 1974)
In 1902, Anita Giner Soler, daughter of José Maria Giner Martí (born in Vilallonga) and Ana Soler Ruzafa (born in Alicante), arrived in the main square of Vilallonga, next to the church. Aleshores did not foreshadow what fate had in store for him.
Ben prompte will captivate the filmmaker Maximilià Thous, and in 1924 he opted for Anita Giner for the starring role in the film La Dolores. To be his first cinematographic project, the success will be resounding. The film was an adaptation of the drama by Josep Feliu Codina amb The music by Tomás Bretón. Thous intended to imitate classic American cinema by introducing the role of the “fatal lady” and is now going to achieve it thanks to the surprising interpretation of Anita Giner. She is going to become the revelation act of Valencian cinema of the time and she is going to be sponsored by more films under her direction. In 1924 he starred in the film The Joy of the Battalion, an adaptation of the sarsuela written by Carlos Arniches and scored by Josep Serrano. On this occasion, Anita Giner will play the new protagonist alongside the fashionable Valencian actor Leopold Pitarch.
In 1925 he acted in the film Nit d'Albades, a dramatic comedy of Valencian costumes released in the rest of Spain under the title Noche de Alboradas. Thous's adaptation of Josep Guzmán's drama in three acts is going to be a total success, with its brilliant interpretation facing more success in the press. The small number of successes meant that in 1926 Maximilià Thous began filming an ambitious project named Moors and Christians, with the Valencian actress returning to have the leading role. But the immediate economic difficulties are worth noting because the project is largely unintended, PACE's production company is going to fail and the film will not be able to be released. Thous passion for cinema ended with that project of Moros y Cristianos at the time when sound cinema began to be completely new.
Surely, Anita Giner will have many job offers but she will not return to the screen until 1929, in the Catalan film l'Auca by Mr. Esteve. The director, Lucas Argilés, will adapt the work with the additions of Adrià Gual but the film, released in Barcelona, will not please the Catalan public and its exit will be difficult to obtain. This is it, that sapiguem, the lady darrera appeared on the screens.
The civil war completely changed Anita's life, and she ended up starring in a reality film rather than a fictional one. At the beginning of 1938, she worked as deputy supervisor of the Valdeganga military hospital in Albacete. There he was with the international brigadier Frank Ayres, a railwayman from Yorkshire and founder of the English Communist Party, who was then political commissioner of Valdeganga and who had connected to Valencia.
The administrator of the hospital was the Englishwoman Nan Green, who quickly established a great friendship with Frank and Anita. Soon, Nan Green and Frank Ayres will be accused of embezzlement in the hospital administration. However, these false accusations were the result of the disappointment that Captain Metge Kretzschmar had made with Nan Green in having rebutjat her former amorous intentions. The first consequence will be the arrest of Anita Giner, accused of hoaxing some letters that Frank Ayres had donated about the functioning of the hospital. Accused of spying by the captain and the supervisor, Anita - the beautiful deputy supervisor of the hospital - will be arrested and taken to Conca in April 1938. A few days later, Nan Green will be forced to resign. In this way, the vines of the three are separated for a few months. But when Nan Green tried to move to Barcelona, she miraculously found Frank Ayres at the Vinaròs station. Frank, who has been appointed in charge of the staff of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee, takes Nan to the hospital that has been sent to Uclés, near Tarancón, where all three will be reunited again. There they waited until the end of the battle of l'Ebre and made them go to the front, when they sadly died, Nan's husband, George Green.
Thanks to the efforts of Nan Green, Frank Ayres and Anita Giner, who are already married, they will be able to leave Spain. Exiled, they settled in London in the mateix apartment with Vivia Nan, and our Anita Giner became Anita d'Ayres and, therefore, with British nationality. Frank and Anita soon lived in Battersea, and at the end of 1942 they also lived in Nan Green. That place became a kind of commune in the war context of the Second World War.
After the world war, social activities began to function more peacefully at the Spanish Home in London. Anita was a regular in that civic space of the Spanish exiles that the communist party controlled. She participated in Nadal's festivals and special events, such as the one in 1945 in which she performed accompanied by guitarist Manuel Mantas.
At the turn of 1968 Anita decided to return to her origins. As we see, everyone who was originally from Vilallonga had strong family ties to the Gallinera Valley. Finally, our protagonists decide to spend their six days in the town of Benialí. Frank, Anita and the German wife Consuelo Giner, are going to live at number 22 Carrer de la Plaça, in a house that they will leave behind Paco Pavia Giner. Frank and Anita had a quiet life, they went to dinner and went to play dominoes at the bar, they didn't have any children.
Anita, who always avoided talking about her glorious past as an actress, died on February 26, 1974, leaving Benialí alone with her two widowed children. It faces 1977, when Spain is going to approve the Amnesty Law Politics i Labor, thanks to the efforts of a named friend Arturo Garcia Consuelo may still be able to receive a pension as retaliation. Arturo Garcia was involved in these efforts because he had worked at the Banc Popular de València and had the following director at Consuelo's home, a certain Manuel. This is what he thought of being the one who had recovered from France, since he and his German wife Anita had been exiled to England and were not going to receive any more money, he thought, she had been exiled to France together with her husband who was going to die there in Banyuls-sur-Mer, near Collioure.
Arturo Garcia tells, in some excellent memoirs, how one day he will go to Benialí to visit his best friend Consuelo. She was taken care of by a girl from the town, Amparito Alemany, who could not get away from the situation. Li is going to ask what I was thinking about to be so happy despite the difficulties that I had faced, and Consuelo is going to answer:
