In one of our productions, Lluvia del Norte (Leonor Miró, 2011), Hakima Naji, a historical activist of the Moroccan feminist movement, reminded us that mentioning the names and surnames of the people is a way of giving them value. I believe so as well.
In fact, it all goes back to the CECCfilm school and the few years (from 1990 to 1995) in which a group of friends met to create, among many other projects and experiences, the Ateneu Cinema Groupassociation. That association was initially integrated by Germán Balart, Leonor Miró, Carlos M. Ferrandiz, Isabel Castella, Antonio Lorenzoand myself; besides the projections organized at the Ateneu de Cerdanyola, we also bought a 16mm Arri BL camera, a Sennheiser 416 microphone, a travelling from the fifties, a few old spotlights and some tripods. Soon, pushed by our vocation and with the greatest enthusiasm, we started filming a vast amount of stories with that second-hand material and, in fact, with some of these people and the support of the association, my directorial debut (Fuente Álamo, la caricia del tiempo) was born; the filming began in 1996, thanks as well to a grant accorded to the script at the 1995 edition of L’Alternativa film festival and to the collaboration of Salto de Eje.
Shortly after, in November 1998, in a parallel process to the creation of that first film, I co-founded Producciones Doble Banda, together with Albert Espel and Paco Jodar, but always keeping a close and active bond with the people and the philosophy of the Ateneu de Cerdanyola Cinema Groupassociation. So much so that, a few years later and in its longer-lasting period, from 2001 to 2017, Producciones Doble Banda, for a little change, came to be integrated by Yolanda Olmos, Leonor Miró, Verònica Font, Isabel Castella and myself.
And so, for partly merging with the previous association, for its continuity over time and for the amount of accomplished productions, it is chiefly to the gaze and the effort of the people in this second period that Producciones Doble Bandaowes its essence and its sign of identity.
Many are the productions and adventures of those years. Just to mention some, together with Entrepueblos, an association we have always kept a close bond with, essential works came into being, such as Vos, que sos mi hermana (2001) and Shorok (2007) by Yolanda Olmos, or the aforementioned Lluvia del Norte(2011) by Leonor Miró... We also filmed Humans a Venta Micena (2007) by Germán Balart and we fell in love with the Gibert family, or Kilian Jornet, el comptador de llacs (2013) by Verónica Font, in which we climbed, together with Kilian and Eduard, to heights unthinkable to us... Here you can explore and find almost all of our productions and here you can watch the majority of them in different platforms, either for free or by paying a small fee.
Currently, and since January 2019, with all the experience gathered over the years and this intense path behind, I begin by myself a third period in the business by assuming all the responsibility of the company, but knowing that many future collaborations will still bring us together with Yolanda, Leonor, Verónica and Isabel, mainly because of the gaze that unites us, but also because we have in our backs more than 20 years of business and work relationship, and of a deep friendship.
Pablo García Pérez de Lara
the production company(Text extracted from the original website)
We are a group of people with very similar ideas about cinema, as well as good friends. Since 1998 we have devoted much of our lives to making and producing films.
In these 22 years we have always worked cooperatively, with consensus in our decision-making, attempting to encourage both our personal development and that of the team.
Each of our films are intrinsically a way of making and thinking up cinema, a way of carrying out and interpreting life; studies closely linked to our gaze that speak volumes about us.
Being able to make a living from a profession we are passionate about is a personal and collective challenge we work towards every day and in which we continue to believe.
In Nicaragua during the filming of 'Vos, que sos mi hermana' (Yolanda Olmos, 2001). From left to right: Leonor Miró, Coquito (subject of the documentary); Yolanda Olmos, Néstor (friend, driver and technician from Nicaragua who was invaluable to us); Verònica Font and Pablo García.
About us
Leonor Miró
As a friend and unconditional collaborator of Doble Banda, Menna Fité, said
"Why is it that after every shoot you forget what the bad times were like and only remember the good things...It's a real bastard because it makes you always go back and do it again."
Exactly!
Verònica Font
"...my curiosity about film and sound led me to film school. The emotion and passion I felt for this art grew thanks to the people I met there. As the years passed, I became gradually but constantly involved in every project, caught up in the excitement of the production company, of a way of thinking and a way of looking, and although the road is hard, the desire to continue to be moved by our projects remains unchanged."
Yolanda Olmos
The other day somebody told me that our work -or should I say, film- was not essential for living, and that that was the reason we would never leave the trenches (where it is often quite warm in the company of friends talking for hours about impossible stories). Not knowing what to answer, I lit up a cigarette in a close up, read the subtitle "smoking kills" and in a long shot went home thinking: I'm killing myself on two fronts.
Pablo García:
"... even before directing my first feature film 'Fuente Álamo, the caress of time' in 1996, I already felt the need to make personal and independent films. Curiously, all my early projects were done with the help of relatively large groups of collaborators.
Lately, with the passing of time, I have polished my way of looking and doing, to the extent that I have managed to bring the creative process closer to the almost absolute independence that is more characteristic of writers or artists. For some time now, and thanks also to the evolution of technologies, I have felt very close to the pen and artist's brush."