Two Catalonias

They called Netflix because foreign coverage flattened the vote

Alvaro Longoria told Catalan News that Two Catalonias started as a reaction to how the October 1, 2017 independence referendum was being sold abroad. "We realized that what was happening was not being told, there was a lot of manipulation and simplification," he said. Co-director Gerardo Olivares wanted viewers in "Sydney, Mongolia, and Patagonia" to see the same footage. latestnetflix.com's view is that Netflix put the film up worldwide on September 28, 2018, translated into 42 languages, with a claimed reach of 130 million subscribers.The original title is Dos Catalunas. Runtime is 116 minutes.

The cameras did not sit in a studio and wait for talking heads. Catalan News says the narrative follows the campaign trail through Catalonia, Brussels, and even Estremera, the Madrid-region prison that held some pro-independence leaders before they were moved. Longoria told Fotogramas the pair split the work along the film's title. One block of crews tracked the sovereigntists. The other tracked the constitutionalists. On some days three units were rolling at once. They followed seven parties through the December 21, 2017 regional election campaign "almost as if we were in a road movie," including the back rooms where aides pick the five or six headlines each candidate will hammer.,

Eighty-five interviews, and a few locked doors.

The cut is built on 85 interviews. Catalan News names former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, Ciudadanos leader Ines Arrimadas, former foreign minister Raul Romeva, Barcelona mayor Ada Colau, and Xavier Domenech among the sit-downs. Jordi Turull appears while in pre-trial detention. The directors said they wanted politicians who were already in prison at the time of filming. Despite the effort, that access was "impossible." Spain's then vice-president, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, did not answer. Wikipedia adds that Oriol Junqueras was already in jail, and that Rajoy's side is thin, mainly his chief of staff plus Andrea Levy.,

Producer Rafael Portela joined Longoria and Olivares at the Barcelona press showing. La Vanguardia reports Longoria's origin story in blunt terms. He watched the police action on October 1 travel the world. "Rafa and I started to think, we called Netflix and proposed the idea of telling the problem for the whole world." They wanted a cut a Catalan viewer, a Spanish viewer, and a foreign viewer could all sit through.

Neither director is from Catalonia. Olivares was born in Cordoba. Longoria was born in Santander. "We are not Spaniards, we have lived abroad a large part of our lives, and this has made our point of view when making the documentary more neutral," Longoria said. He also said they tried not to indoctrinate. "This documentary does not try to say 'you have to think like that', but rather: 'this is what is happening and you will see what you want to think'." Olivares was less sunny about the street. "There is a social fracture that forces you to choose one side or the other." After the shoot, both said their view of the conflict had not flipped. They claimed a clearer read on how it started.

Morena Films and Sentido Films produced. Fotogramas placed the narrative end date at May 22, 2018, the point at which Catalonia would either have a government or slide toward another election. Netflix dropped the film three days before the first anniversary of the referendum. The gossip that never arrived is a sourced blow-up between the camps on set. What did arrive is a two-hour cut that both sides still argue about, which is probably the point.,