The Hearst Metrotone News Collection and the Spanish Civil War

Free admission. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.

Introduction by Gerardo Fueyo Bros, consul general of Spain in Los Angeles, and Gonzalo del Puerto, cultural director, Instituto Cervantes Los Ángeles. 70-minute presentation by historian Silvia Ribelles de la Vega, followed by a Q&A with Ribelles moderated by May Hong HaDuong, director, UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Presented in partnership with The Packard Humanities Institute and the Instituto Cervantes Los Ángeles.

Marking the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Silvia Ribelles de la Vega, a scholar and historian at The Packard Humanities Institute, presents a program featuring seldom-seen views of the war, drawn from the Hearst Metrotone News collection.

The preservation of and access to the collection have been made possible only through the incredible efforts of The Packard Humanities Institute, in collaboration with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, to expand access to one of the most significant newsreel archives of the 20th century. This collection of 27 million feet of newsreels includes approximately 288 reels of film related to the Spanish Civil War.

At the time, newsreels — short-form, theatrically exhibited news stories — were often the only moving image records of unfolding events available to international audiences. Hearst cameramen covered the conflict extensively and, remarkably, filmed from both sides of the war. Ribelles’ presentation will move chronologically from 1936 to 1939 and feature not only edited newsreels but also selections from longer, previously unseen footage.

Describing the Hearst Metrotone News collection as “a gem for any researcher,” Ribelles highlights the opportunities this newly accessible material offers to scholars and history enthusiasts alike. Drawing on production records, maps and related archival documents, she will examine how the newsreels were filmed, edited and circulated, and how studying them today can surface overlooked histories and reshape our understanding of the Spanish Civil War.

90 years after a conflict that tore a nation apart, these newsreels stand as vital audiovisual evidence and as a testament to the enduring impact of making archival collections accessible to all.

The Archive is grateful to The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) for its role as the driving force in the project to share the Hearst Metrotone News Collection for research, study and public access. To explore more than 20,000 news stories preserved and made accessible by PHI, including unedited materials featured in this program, visit newsreels.net(opens in a new tab).