‘The Longest Voyage’ by Manuel H. Martín describes humanity’s journey into the unknown

10/26/2020.- The Longest Voyage, a documentary combining animation, live action and interviews, tells the story of Fernando de Magallanes and Juan Sebastián Elcano’s first voyage around the world. This Spanish-Portuguese co-production will premiere at the DOC.Spain section. Its director, Manuel H. Martín, stresses the importance of “premiering at a festival reaching its 65^th edition”.

The inspiration for this documentary was the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, because “I usually get to books through films”. On a similar note, the director himself tells stories so that “spectators are kept entertained and the story has them hooked during the 80 minutes it lasts”. “If it interests or moves you, that is great,” he adds.

The director of 30 Years of Darkness, nominated for a Goya in 2012, claims to have used a technique that is very similar to comics. In his words, it “gives everything a very cinematic feeling”. The project “was very organic” because the team was made up of people from both Portugal and Spain. He believes that “production happened very naturally” and he is getting “positive” feedback about the duration of the film, which “goes by quickly”.

This documentary, which premieres today at Seminci, will also be screened at the Seville festival and on Filmin. However, the most important thing for the filmmaker is “to keep directing projects and telling stories in a few years”. He wants to enjoy the ride and quoted Machado: “Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar” (“Traveler, there is no road; you make your path as you walk.”)

Finally, he says that “the most gratifying thing” about this pandemic we are living in “is that many of us have realized that this job is our life and that, fortunately, it allows us to keep dreaming that another world is possible”.