Joaquin Jordà has probably been the most important reference in Catalan documentary filmmaking in the last 50 years. When he died, he was preparing a project about the irruption of heroin in Barcelona in the late 70s: Die by Day. Two of his collaborators Sergi Dies and Laia Manresa decided to end it. One can more or less agree with the authors’ point of view, but there is no doubt that we are dealing with an important documentary about a topic that is too often silenced.
When talking about the Catalan counterculture of the late 70s and early 80s, there is a blank space that few feel ready to fill in: that of the arrival of heroin in Spain, and the consequences that it had for those who threw themselves into living thoroughly their experience under the auspices of the promising freedom of the first years of transition. Sergi Dies and Laia Manresa complete this blank space in Morir de dia, through the story of four missing in combat: Pau Maragall, Mercè Pastor, Pep Sales and Juanjo Voltas. With archival images and the participation of survivors, Manresa and Dies effectively carry out one of the last projects that Joaquín Jordà left behind before his death: to remember the missing friends and the intense air of times full of possibilities. Dying by day, like Vicent Aleixandre’s poem that gives it its title, talks about those who died on the edge of lucidity.
Data sheet
Title: Dying by day
Director: Laia Manresa and Sergi Dies
Screenplay: Laia Manresa
Production: Marta Andreu and Daria Esteva
Director of photography: Carles Gusi
Music: Dani Fontodrona and Ricard Casals
Editing: Sergi Dies
Year: 2010