There is reason!

¡Hay motivo! is a series of 32 short films produced in February 2004 and screened from March 9 in which various aspects of reality are criticized Spanish society and, above all, the Popular Party government on various social and political issues. According to the filmmakers themselves, the purpose of this series of short films was to promote a change of government before the imminent general elections. After the attacks of March 11, 2004, a short film number 33 was produced, entitled "Epílogo", directed by Diego Galán and narrated by Fernando Fernán Gómez, where the information management of the massacre and its effect on the elections that would happen 3 days later.

Content

Among the issues of criticism are the rise in housing prices in Spain, the government's management of the crisis that followed the sinking of the oil tanker Prestige in Galicia, the support of President José María Aznar for the invasion of Iraq of 2003 or the manipulation of public television, endorsed by the judicial conviction of the news presenter Alfredo Urdaci, for information manipulation in the case of a general strike called by the Comisiones Obreras and UGT unions.

There's a Reason! was not shown commercially in theaters, but was shown at universities and other venues that specifically requested its screening. It was also broadcast on local TV channels. The filmmakers themselves used these channels in order to spread the series as quickly as possible, which is why they also encouraged downloading the film over the Internet, through P2P networks.

The effect of the film on public opinion is difficult to assess, since the attacks in Madrid on March 11, 2004, just three days before the elections, represented too abrupt a change in society and politics Spanish.

Finally, the film was released commercially on November 12, 2004 and was screened until the 25th of the same month, the film's last day of exhibition. Only 496 spectators went to the cinema to see it (data from the Ministry of Culture). The collection amounted to 2,831.40 euros.

Background

One of the triggers for the making of this film was probably the 17th edition of the Goya Awards, held on February 1, 2003, in which actors and directors wore badges saying "No to war" and turned the act into an allegation against it.

Another precedent was probably the success of Michael Moore's documentary film Bowling for Columbine, which marked a revival of the documentary genre.

The shorts

1. Free (Joaquín Oristrell), with Candela Peña and Secun de la Rosa. Social X-ray.
2. The hydrological plan (Pere Portabella). Starring Pedro Arrojo Agudo, Professor of Physical Sciences
3. The Nightmare (Álvaro del Amo). Aznalcollar deck.
4. Close your eyes (David Trueba). About Spanish justice.
5. Where do we live? (Gracia Querejeta). Housing problem.
6. The unbearable lightness of the shopping cart (Isabel Coixet). The pensioners and their purchase.
7. Soledad (Jose Angel Rebolledo). Elders who die alone at home.
8. Adoption (Sigfrid Monleon). Discrimination against homosexual couples in this case.
9. For your own good (Icíar Bollaín). About the complications and suffering of the mother and child in childbirth. Starring Luis Tosar.
10. Adolescents (Chus Gutiérrez). Plant the topic of the educational system.
11. The Dead Women's Club (Víctor Manuel). Videoclip of the song The Dead Women's Club, by the singer Victor Manuel, who debuts as director performing his own musical video. Both the video and the song address the issue of mistreatment of women and gender-based violence.
12. For sale school (Pedro Olea). It's a real case. Some parents complain that the Church bought the public school (thus secular) to which their children came and now impart religious teachings that have nothing to do with the previous ones. The problem is that the parents learned of this sale once the academic course began.
13. Catechesis (Yolanda García Serrano). Pilar Bardem tells a story written by Juan José Millás to the spectator; the story of a priest who sexually abused minors and the bishop who supported him.
14. The Barranquillas (Víctor García León). Social protection leaves some social groups aside.
15. Madrid, mon amour (Ana Díez and Bernardo Belzunegui).
16. By the sea run the hare (José Luis Cuerda). In 1993, the then president of the Popular Party and aspirant of the Moncloa, José María Aznar, launched a premonitory warning: "That things are recorded in video."
17. Weapons of media destruction (Miguel Angel Díez). The famous Urdaci case taken to the cinema.
18. Manipulation (Imanol Uribe). The manipulation of public and private media.
19. My thirty euros (Fernando Colomo). A worker owes thirty euros of a work that was to inaugurate a government representative.
20. Moral double (John Diego Botto).
21. Verja (Alfonso Ungría). African refugees in the Melilla fence.
22. Spanish for foreigners (José Luis García Sánchez).
23. Legality? (Daniel Cebrián). About Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
24. Second death (The Great Wyoming). This is José Couso's brother.
25. Yak-42 (Manuel Gómez Pereira).
26. The Basque ball (fragments) (Julio Medem). On the conflict in the Basque Country generated around the violence of ETA and the national question.
27. Kontrastasum (Versos de Gabriel Celaya) (Mireia Lluch).
28. Captain's dinner (Pere Joan Ventura) about the Prestige Disaster.
29. Mayday (Manuel Rivas). Chapapote.
30. Techniques for a coup d'etat (Vicente Aranda).
31. The past that awaits you (Mariano Barroso). List of real reasons for voting for a party supporting executive management in the last legislature
32. The fucking fly (Antonio Betancor). Nadine Fontserè faces.
33. Epilogue (Diego Galán).