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The Movie Maker

José filming Back to the Firing Squad, 1970
Lux Perpetua (released in 1980)
What Can Be Shown” (FM on FM’s Films)
A List of Ferrater Mora’s Films
Letters by FM on Movies or Movie Making

Ferrater Mora acknowledged that his films are unmistakably his. After only a year of filming, he wrote:

“. . . my little, alas super 8 films, may be defective in many respects and all that jazz, but I have the impression that they show some style (mine), and some personality (mine) so even if they are not good enough they may be more original than a number of underground or semi-underground productions, most of them mere imitations or cravings to ‘epater le bourgeois,’ whom by the way, is hard to ‘epater’ nowadays. The whole thing, which I am expressing so clumsily, may be summarized thus: I have the impression that I have some ‘style,’ both in thinking and in ways of expressing the thought, and it is most likely that such ‘style’-whatever that means—is expressed or reflected, in other manifestations, including the recent cinematic one. . .”

Ferrater Mora’s interest in movies dates back to his youth as is shown by several essays on film in his early book, Cóctel de verdad, published in 1935. He did not begin making films, however, until he was gifted with a movie camera in 1967. His first films were in super 8. He later made films in 16mm. To say that Ferrater Mora made films means he conceived of the story or the theme of the film, planned the shots, operated the cameras, cut the film into A and B rolls and edited it on a movieola, selected and "mixed" the sound, and so forth. Later he videotaped his "films" learning to edit them electronically.