‘Vestida de Azul’, by Antonio Giménez-Rico, will be re-released in 4K at the Berlin Festival

The 75th edition of the Berlin Festival will host the re-release of the restored 4K copy of ‘Dressed in blue’ documentary film by Antonio Gimenez-Rico about transsexuality. Released in 1983, the feature film addressed the difficulties that people in this group faced in the years after the Franco dictatorship.

This revamped version of ‘Dressed in Blue’ will be screened in the Berlinale Classics section dedicated to high-quality restorations of historical works, taking up the witness of the 4K copy of ‘Deprisa, deprisa’, who participated in the previous edition. Mercury Films has carried out both remasters in collaboration with FlixOlé.

The screening of Giménez-Rico’s film, reference work for the LGTBIQ+ collective, will have the intervention of Nacha Sanchezpart of the cast that participated in the documentary, at the premiere of the restored copy.

The process to obtain this version has consisted of scanning and subsequent image and sound restoration of the original 16mm negative. Mercury Films thus recovers and promotes a film that, until its incorporation into the FlixOlé catalog, remained in the shadows for decadesdue to the limited distribution it had after its run in theaters.

‘Dressed in blue’ It is a film released at a time when cinema began to address topics censored during the dictatorship. Transsexuality had not normally been represented on screen and, when it was, it was through prejudices that projected a world reduced to cabarets and prostitution.

SIX STORIES, SIX PROTAGONSITES

Giménez-Rico set out to make a feature film that would address this reality, exploring the suffering and marginalization with which they lived day after day. ‘Dressed in blue, it marked a before and after by reflecting the hopeless daily life, illusions and demands of six trans women.

The documentary avoids morbidity and sensationalism to focus the narrative weight on its protagonists. At the same time, the film served as a chronicle of the experiences of trans people at that time, with testimonies that denounced the arrests and imprisonment, the lack of job opportunities and the sexual exploitation they suffered.

In 1983, ‘Dressed in blue’ It was screened at the San Sebastián Festival and participated in the Chicago Film Festival. Teo Escamilla was in charge of the photography direction, in addition to being part of the production team with Jaime de Armiñán through the company Serva Films.