Professor Sally Faulkner (Department of Spanish and Portuguese) has published a new blog post with Manchester University Press reflecting on her recent book The Cinema of Cecilia Bartolomé: Feminism and Francoism.
In the post, Professor Faulkner explains her motivation for writing the book, beginning with the striking originality of Bartolomé’s work, which she describes as “funny, irreverent, musically adventurous, intellectually provocative, and deeply feminist.” Despite these qualities, Bartolomé remains little known, even within Spain. Her career was shaped by censorship under the Franco regime, where even her early Film School work was suppressed, and continued to face obstacles in the post-dictatorship period due to what Faulkner describes as the lingering “muscle memory” of censorship.
A further aim of the book is to make Bartolomé’s work accessible to Anglophone audiences. As a scholar of Spanish cinema based in the UK, Professor Faulkner notes that much of Bartolomé’s output has not been available with English subtitles. The book therefore introduces her films to new audiences through critical analysis, while also forming part of a broader initiative to expand access to world cinema. Through the Subtitling World Cinema project, co-led by Professor Faulkner, three of Bartolomé’s works have now been subtitled into English for the first time.
The project also has a strong connection to Manchester, where Manchester University Press published the book and HOME cinema hosted the world premiere of Bartolomé’s subtitled works at the ¡VIVA! Film Festival in 2023.
Read the full blog post: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/03/10/the-cinema-of-cecilia-bartolome/