There is a wealth of archival footage from the Spanish Civil War available on the internet, primarily from newsreels. Joris Ivens’s 1937 documentary The Spanish Earth, made with Ernest Hemingway (who does the narration), is available here. The Filmoteca Española in Madrid offers a large amount of interesting film material on its YouTube channel (here). Extensive color footage of the war was shot by the American (pro-Francoist) filmmaker Russell Palmer, for his film Defenders of the Faith (in its Spanish overdubbed version here).
Oral-history interviews about the Spanish Civil War are at ALBA’s YouTube Channel:
- A portrait of Lincoln veteran Matti Mattson
- Amy Goodman about the Lincoln Brigade
- Interview with British Spanish Civil War historian Helen Graham
- Fragment from an unknown Spanish Civil War film by Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Interview with Spanish Civil War historian Gabriel Jackson
- An ALBA celebration with Matti Mattson, Maynard Goldstein, and Pete Seeger
Short video capsules made by James D. Fernández and Katie Halper for the 2007 exhibit Facing Fascism: New York and the Spanish Civil War:
- Interview with Lincoln veteran Abe Osheroff, 4:32
- Interview with Lincoln veteran Milt Wolff, 3:01
- Interview with Lincoln veteran Jay Greenfield, 3:39
- About the popular song “No Pasarán” (video), 3:15
- School of Hard Knocks (video), 4:47
- When the War Was Over (video), 4:49
- More video capsules here.
See also: A Father’s Forgotten Tribute in a Spanish Civil War Eulogy on PBS´s History Detectives.
The most complete English-language documentary ever made about the Spanish Civil War is The Spanish Civil War (Granada Television, 1983). All six 50-minute episodes are viewable online:
- Episode 1: Prelude to Tragedy
- Episode 2: Revolution, Counterrevolution & Terror
- Episode 3: Battleground for Idealists
- Episode 4: Franco and the Nationalists
- Episode 5: Inside the Revolution
- Episode 6: Victory and Defeat