Bigas Luna Tribute: The filmmaker’s legacy arrives in Los Angeles in its 9th edition

Ten years ago one of the references of Spanish cinema left us, the director Bigas Luna. In his style, eroticism, excesses, perversions, passion for food … ultimately transgression is captured. His legacy, made up of pieces such as ‘The ages of Lulú’, ‘Ham, ham’, ‘Huevos de oro’, ‘Son de mar’ or ‘Yo soy la Juani’ corroborates this.

His cinema continues to be admired a decade later. As an example of this is the Bigas Luna Tribute. This event is responsible for honor the director’s work with retrospectives in various parts of the world. The purpose of this tribute is to give the public the unique opportunity to see some of the most critically acclaimed works of the Barcelona filmmaker and participate in debates with special guests (members of the Spanish film industry who worked with Bigas Luna, academics, etc). The organizers are Betty Bigas, the daughter of Bigas Lunaartist and art curator, and Professor Santiago Fouz Hernández Durham Universityan admirer and expert in the Catalan’s work.

These tributes began in San Francisco in 2015 and have continued since then in cities such as Barcelona in 2016, Mexico City and Valencia in 2017, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney and San José (Costa Rica) were the places in 2018, Manchester and Vienna in 2019, Madrid in 2021, and New York, Copenhagen, Cleveland (Ohio), and Edinburgh in 2022. Cities in 2023 will include Los Angeles and Lisbon.

Numerous international sponsors, important movie theaters in the cities mentioned and several Spanish consulates or Instituto Cervantes centers have collaborated in carrying out a total of more than 100 screenings in eight different countries around the world.

Now the Bigas Luna Tribute in Los Angeles has been announced, which will take place from March 17 to 24. The event comes out of a collaboration with the American Cinematheque, an independent, non-profit cultural organization in Los Angeles, and Durham University. Said event will feature screenings of the ‘Iberian Portraits’ Trilogy, (made up of ‘Ham, ham, ‘Huevos de oro’ and ‘La teta y la luna’) and other classics by the filmmaker. The projections will have a previous presentation.

As of March 17, the films ‘Jamón, jamón’, ‘Huevos de oro’ and ‘La teta y la luna’ will be shown successively. On the 19th there will be a screening of the peculiar ‘Poodle’ (1979). All of them will have an introduction by Professor Fouz Hernández (Durham University), while on Monday 20, ‘Angustia’ (1986), the cult horror film, will be presented by filmmaker F. Javier Gutiérrez (‘3 días’ , ‘Rings’). From March 22 to 24, the projections of the renowned trilogy will continue.

In collaboration with the recently inaugurated Instituto Cervantes in Los Angeles, the posthumous documentary ‘Bigas x Bigas’ will be presented, released in (2016), based on more than 300 hours of video diaries filmed by Bigas Luna himself in the last years of his life. The editor and co-director of the film, Santiago Garrido Rua, will present this work. The screening will be followed by a round table with Prof. Fouz Hernández.

The events provide an opportunity to enjoy the important work of one of Spain’s most iconic filmmakers and learn more about the context in which they were produced, in conversation with some of his collaborators and international academics who have researched the films..