The legacy of the inventor of the Spanish guitar in ‘La Española. La de Torres’

23/10/19.- On Wednesday, directors Fran López Montoro and Raúl Enrique Navarro presented the feature-length documentary La Española. La de Torres in the DOC. Spain section. The filmmakers honour their great-great-grandfather Antonio de Torres, who is credited with having invented the Spanish guitar as it is currently known.

The documentary tells the life and career of musician and luthier Antonio de Torres Jurado through interviews with experts and by displaying his best-known guitars, as well as their respective restorations.

The filmmakers said that it was their grandmother that awoke their interest in the story of the musician and luthier: “Our grandmother used to tell us Antonio’s story growing up. She told us so many things that we couldn’t include everything in the documentary.”

La Española. La de Torres has not always had its current shape. It all started as a short film: “2017 was the bicentenary of Antonio de Torres’ birth. We decided to honour him by making a short film, but we realised that a short film fell short when it came to research. We resorted to crowdfunding and collected money from Japan or Greece, and we made a feature-length documentary in his honour,” explained Raúl Enrique Navarro.

Fran López Montoro and Raúl E. Navarro’s previous documentaries, especially short films, and video clips, were quite successful. Their best-known short film, Bienvenido a Ciudad, won the award for Best Photography at the Cesur en Corto Festival in 2009. It was shortlisted in national festivals, such as the Málaga Spanish Film Festival, and international festivals, such as the Festa Internazionale di Roma or Porto7.