In 1964 the Francoism celebrates the “25 years of peace” with a tight control of information through the No-Do. That’s when a young man decides to take a 16mm camera and go out to shoot places and people that the regime would never want to show.
Llorenç Soler (Valencia, 1936) is one of the pioneers of independent documentary filmmaking in Spain. He belongs to the generation -and is one of the main protagonists- that during the 1960s began filming independent and alternative documentaries regarding the punitive monopoly exercised by the Francoist state in the media, both in television (TVE) and in informative cinema (NO-DO).
Since then, Soler has been a master of documentary filmmakers, both technically and stylistically, and ethically and morally, since he has understood documentary as the genre that can give voice to those who have never had it, systematically denied by power.
And yet we can say that Soler is a documentary filmmaker by accident, not vocational. In fact, he would never wanted to be more than an amateur, etymologically a lover of his work. Ultimately, Soler is a man who has always needed to express himself, either by filming, or by photographing, writing poetry or painting. A creative, free and incorruptible man. A drive for honesty.