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Ella es el Matador (She is the Matador)
U.S./Spain, 2009, 62 minutes, Color, DVD, Spanish and Italian, English subtitles
Order No. W09971
For Spaniards—and for the world—nothing has expressed their country’s traditionally rigid gender roles more powerfully than the image of the male matador. So sacred was the bullfighter’s masculinity to Spanish identity that a 1908 law barred women from the sport.
Visually stunning and beautifully crafted, ELLA ES EL MATADOR (She is the Matador) reveals the surprising history of the women who made such a law necessary, and offers fascinating profiles of two female matadors currently in the arena, the acclaimed Maripaz Vega and neophyte Eva Florencia. These women are gender pioneers by necessity, confronting both bull and social code. But what emerges through this mesmerizing film is their truest motivation—a sheer passion for bullfighting, in the pursuit of a dream.
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Broadcast on P.O.V.'s 2009 Season on PBS
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AWARDS, FESTIVALS, & SCREENINGS
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Tribeca All Access, Creative Promise Award: Documentary |
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Women In Direction International Film Festival, Best Documentary |
- Independent Film Week Spotlight on Documentaries
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- SilverDocs Film Festival
- Guadalajara International Film Festival
- Tulipanes Latino Film Festival
- Redwood City Latino Film Festival
- Dominican Republic Global Film Festival
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QUOTES
“***. An interesting portrait of the fight for gender equality in a typically male-dominated activity…Recommended.”
Video Librarian
”Intelligently edited [and] engaging. A valuable educational tool. Even those familiar with Spanish culture will find some surprises here.”
Jo Labanyi
Dir., King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at New York University
"A historically contextualized, thoroughly researched and culturally informed portrayal of the passions, aspirations and frustrations of young women who seek to become professional performers in the Spanish 'World of Bullfighting’."
Sarah Pink
Author, “Women and Bullfighting: Gender, Sex and the Consumption of Tradition”
“Blends history with up-to-the-minute profiles…. a universal saga.”
Michael Fox
SF360 (San Francisco Film Society)
“It’s impossible not to immerse yourself in the action.”
Sarah Godfrey
Washington City Paper
“Beautiful—watching it, I had an incredible sense of the two women not only as devoted athletes and trailblazers, but also as people who are passionate about an art that is significant in Spanish culture.”
Anna Pinkert
Still Indie
“Demonstrates poignantly the difficulty that women matadors face when trying to break in and succeed in the masculinized sport of bullfighting.”
Sandie Holguin
Associate Professor Spanish /European History, University of Oklahoma
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RELATED LINKS
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Native Visions: Through the Eyes of Indigenous Women
This powerful collection of native voices features two films from the
acclaimed Mohawk director Tracey Deer including CLUB NATIVE
and the coming-of-age documentary MOHAWK GIRLS. Also included is the
critical and heartbreaking tale of aboriginal femicide FINDING DAWN, as
well as the spirited and vibrant Southwestern artists’ film, THE DESERT IS
NO LADY, and the highly provocative identity piece NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE.
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