Ocaña, retrato

intermitente

An intimate portrait of Ocaña, a performance artist, painter, and Spanish LGBT rights activist who defied he conventions that prevailed in Barcelona during the final years of Franco's dictatorship.

This Spanish documentary, the debut of Ventura Pons (1945–2024), offers a striking and intimate portrait of post-Franco Barcelona through the life and voice of José Pérez Ocaña (1947–1983), an Andalusian artist and LGBT rights activist.

Premiered in the Un certain regard section at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, the film unfolds through Ocaña’s own words and presence, recounting an unconventional life that openly explores religion, fetishism, sexuality, and the challenges of living outside societal norms. At its heart, the documentary is both a self-portrait and a chronicle of Barcelona in the early years of the Transition, capturing the fragile visibility of a gay community still persecuted under the “social dangerousness” law, a Francoist instrument of repression that lingered after the dictator’s death.

With a mix of candour and theatricality, Ocaña confronts convention at every turn. Identity is presented as resistant to classification, with the declaration: “I only believe in people.” The film interweaves Ocaña’s considerations with public performances as well as with visual work as a painter and sculptor. Equally unorthodox are the reflections on religion and politics. Formal institutions, from political parties to the Catholic Church, are kept at a distance, while a libertarian spirit emerges – rooted not in doctrine but in Andalusian folk culture and the festive rituals of popular devotion.