During the civil war, the national side launched the “Spanish newsreel & rdquor;a propaganda tool camouflaged as informative cinema in imitation of the newsreels Italians and Germans, who in turn had copied them from Soviet cinema. But it was not until the war was over when it was created the great audiovisual informative with the name of No-Do (Newsreels and Documentaries)successor of that first informative.
The first broadcast of the No-Do was made on January 4, 1943. Its first announcer was José Hernández Franch and the headline music, created especially for the newscast, was composed by Manuel Parada. Among the contents of this first issue, the Christmas atmosphere in Madrid, the situation on the German front during World War II, hairstyle fashion and various information on European countries.
The early structure of No-Do lacked a coherent definition, without blocks or sections, in a miscellaneous mix in which the news followed one another without a hierarchical order and focused its importance more on the texts than on the images themselves and where music was used as an element of dramatization. The production of a single weekly newscast would go on to two (versions A and B) and later to three (A, B and C).
Mandatory broadcast in all cinemas in Spain, it was one of the most effective propaganda devices of the Franco regime
Along its history, No-Do would become an apologetic element of the Francoism and in propaganda popularizer of the benefits of the economic development model of the regime. It was mandatory broadcast in all cinemas in Spain before the screening of the film (it was distributed free to theaters) and it was one of the most effective propaganda devices of the Franco regime from its initial objectives: “to make Spanish news reach the entire world, to make general propaganda documentaries for our country, while at the same time serving the purposes of as many national elements that deserve it & rdquor ;. In a statement to the magazine “Primer Plano & rdquor; (12-27-1942), Joaquín Soriano, the first director of No-Do, pointed out that “the Spanish newscast will ridicule the cretins who defame us, increasing the attraction felt by those who appreciate us because they are cultured and honest, and they want”
from their heads, the No-Do defined his identification with the values of the regime. The first recorded images of the ringing of bells, illustrating the joy of victory with the religious symbology of National Catholicism. An eagle that flies through space, similar to the imperial one on the national coat of arms, leaves Spain and travels around the globe, highlighting the newscast’s motto: “the entire world within the reach of all Spaniards& rdquor; (Other interpretations identify this scene with the imperial vocation of Francoism). This header ended with the red and gold Spanish flag (although the black and white did not allow the colors to be discerned) waving in the wind and a panoramic tour of the symbols of the national coat of arms. Later, in the successive mastheads, the most imperialist elements would gradually disappear.
Created as a result of a decree of September 29, 1942 (three years after the end of the civil war) dependent on the Vice-secretary of Popular Education, its directors, Joaquín Soriano, Alberto Reig and Roberto Bieger and the journalist Alfredo Marqueríe included in their content everything from United News images to those issued by the propaganda structures of the Third Reich, since many of the international documentaries came from the German UFA. For the own production there were cameramen like Ramón Saiz de la Hoya, Ismael Palacios or Juan Manuel de la Chica. No-Do had its headquarters in Madrid and received material from correspondent offices in Valencia, Seville, A Coruña, San Sebastián, Palma de Mallorca and Barcelona. From abroad, it fed on newscasts from Gaumont, Metro News, Fox News and UFA, which occupied more than 50% of the total duration (between 10 and 15 minutes). In 1957 he joined the INA (International Newsreel Association), which gave him access to international newsreel materials from other countries.
The No-Do, which was born during World War II, manifested a pro-German position during the first years of the war, publicizing the victories of Hitler’s troops on the European fronts. When the defeat of the Axis forces was imminent, the tone turned towards a neutralist position and later pro-alliedespecially after the discovery of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.
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For almost forty years it was a model for the production of documentaries and film newsreels and a school for technicians, scriptwriters and directors. In total, 4,016 newsreels were made, 1,219 documentaries that bore the generic title of “Images& rdquor; and another 700 special documentaries. During the first years of TVE, the No-Do infrastructure collaborated with the new medium by carrying out programs such as the news program “A toda plana& rdquor; and since 1968 the newscast became institutionally dependent on TVE, above all to eliminate possible competition between the two. Curiously, it is at this moment when changed the name of Noticiario Cinematográfico to Revista Cinematográfica, a justified change from the No-Do structures themselves to “intensify the substitution of news for reports. The news is self-explanatory, but the report requires an internal order, a basic idea developed in images and with adequate text and music& rdquor ;. In reality, the change was due to the introduction of television in Spain as the dominant reference point for audiovisual information.
After Franco’s death in November 1975, the No-Do continued for a few years to preside over the information on the screens of movie theaters despite the disinterested reception of the public and its decline, caused by the consolidation of television. shortly before, in May 1975, the obligation to screen it in movie theaters had already been lifted. The last broadcast was in May 1981.The reports and documentaries of the No-Do, with a clear ideological nuance, have remained for posterity as a historical source of audiovisual documentation. His images, apart from the texts, have become an important archive for illustrating and contextualizing current information.