Bird's Eye View

She is the Matador: An Interview

Matador Maripaz Vega in the bullring

Is bullfighting sport, dance, theatre or blood ritual? She Is The Matador reveals bullfighting to be all of these. Through current interviews and archival footage illustrating the history of women in bullfighting, the film offers a window on the highly choreographed and deadly match between bull and human that remains enormously popular in Spain, even as it is reviled by many in an age of animal rights.

Celeste Carrasco & Gemma Cubero del Barrio run the Talcual Films production company and She Is The Matador is their joint directorial debut. 

We are thrilled to be screening this passionate account of a fascinating tradition as part of our 2010 Festival this Friday and caught up with  Celeste and Gemma in lieu of this.

JC:  Did you grow up watching bullfighting? Is it something that you have always been interested in?

CC & GCB: Not at all. Like most Spaniards, we watched bullfights on television. Gemma got to experience bulls on horseback in the country but Celeste never even entered a bullring or watched a bullfight prior to making the film. Neither of us were really into bullfighting.

When the idea came up, we were both living in San Francisco and had gained some distance from Spain. We read in the New York Times that the only known female matador of the 1990’s, Cristina Sánchez, was quitting because male matadors at the top didn’t want to share top billings. This sparked our interest and we decided to research the news. What we found fascinating was that not only Cristina but also many other women throughout Spain’s history have tried to be matadors but they have been forbidden to do it by law. From this point, we knew we had a powerful story.

We became fascinated with questions – why would a woman want to be a matador? What do they feel in the ring? Why do they do it? In the last 10 years, we have gained tremendous respect for the protagonists of our film. Now we are shocked to find ourselves in the position of wanting to see Maripaz’s future fights!

As outsiders to the culture, many British audiences can find bullfighting difficult to understand, and this is definitely part of our ongoing fascination for it. How would you explain to us the appeal of bullfighting?

Bullfighting is the quintessential symbol of masculinity and bravery in Spanish culture. For us, born and raised in Spain, making this documentary about female matadors means changing this symbol and shifting the gender roles that have been defined for centuries. It has also been a personal journey of exploring and questioning our culture.

It is difficult to rationally explain the appeal of bullfighting. We think it has something to do with the fact that nowadays, bullfighting is the only spectacle where we can directly see a fight between “human” and “beast”  and experience life and death.

Did the gory details of bullfighting bother either of you when making this film?

Maripaz in action

Yes. It was hard to watch and shoot certain aspects of the bullfight.  From the very beginning we knew that we didn’t want to focus on the gory aspects of bullfighting. We needed to be true to our characters and show their world but what attracted us to the subject matter was Eva and Maripaz’ courage and passion to pursue what they love.

How did you come to meet the subjects of the film?

The film began with the news of Cristina Sánchez quitting the profession. We had a really powerful historical component, but we didn’t want to make a film about those who were no longer alive or bullfighting. We wanted to find women who are fighting today.

We started looking for characters in the summer of 2001. We met with young women all over Spain who were at the beginning stages of their bullfighting career. We found Eva in the very first trip and we knew that we had found a very articulate, deep person that could tell a dramatic story. As an outsider originally from Italy, she has the passion of a dreamer.

We also met Maripaz Vega in 2001 but it took us several years to fully gain access to her private life. We chose Maripaz not only because she is the only active professional female matador in the world but also because she comes from a family of all men who wanted to be matadors but failed. All of them live this passion for bullfighting through her experience, adding complexity to the story.

In the editing process it became very clear that Eva and Maripaz would be the main characters in the film and the historical section would stay in the story to provide context to the audience and support their narrative.

Can you relate to why Eva and Maripaz feel so passionately about becoming Matadors?

Yes, in fact many times we felt that there was a parallel story between their world and our filmmaking world. As first time filmmakers we have also faced great obstacles, had to be determined to move forward despite the obstacles and believe in ourselves. Of course their courage is even greater since they risk their lives every time they go into the plaza.

Eva Florencia

The film shows bullfighting as a very closed business with women struggling corruption within it. Did you find it a difficult film to make because of this?

Yes. We were both outsiders to this world and women are not taken seriously in the profession so it was hard to gain access. The very first time that we tried to shoot in one of the top bullrings in Spain, we were not allowed to go in with the cameras, even though we had requested the necessary permits. That sensation of seeing the door closed in front of you, when we knew that we could do the work, made us feel even closer to our characters. Thanks to their patience and trust we were able to open a window to see this world through their eyes.

What has been the bullfighting community’s reaction to the film?

One of the best surprises is the bullfighting community’s reaction to the film.  They welcomed the film and praised how well the passion and the struggle to be a matador was captured. Many bullfighting fans were not aware of the history of women in the ring.

The film premiered at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico, a country that has a long bullfighting tradition and never forbade women to fight. Bullfighting aficionados came to the film and loved it. The film took a while to premiere in Spain and seemed to engender controversy. At the Women in Direction International Film Festival in Cuenca, however, the film received tremendous attention from the press and won the best documentary award.

Do you think female Matadors will ever be accepted as equals or will men always dominate?

In the making of this film we realized that there are male matadors that are very respectful of Maripaz Vega, because they see her tremendous talent. Yet bullfighting is stuck in time and has not changed in centuries. Even though Spain is a very progressive country with laws that protect women from gender discrimination, bullfighting has not shifted. For example, there was a law that required that a minimum percentage of congress had to be women. If the Spanish government applied such a law to bullfighting, more women would be in the ring.

She Is The Matador will be screened at the ICA on Friday March 5th at 6.45pm and Saturday March 6th at 6.30pm.  For tickets click here