“They started the first democracy in Spain, they performed all over the world. And now they are about to disappear.”

The Circus of Children was no doubt one of the most important circus acts in the world. Another important point is Benposta’s education project, the City of Children.

Revolution Circus Revolution Circus is a documentary about a small nation that achieved remarkable feats — the Nation of the Children. The aim of this audiovisual project is to remind people that the most unattainable goals can be achieved even from the remotest places.

The stars of this story are the boys and girls that one day dreamed of a better world and went along with their mentor, Father Silva.

Father Silva thought that a new world, in which children were the protagonists, was possible. He revolutionized the education system, established a new social and political order and founded his own nation. All that happened in a small town at the height of Franco’s dictatorship. That place was called Benposta.

In this project, the protagonists of this story will tell us first-hand about their experiences, their trips around the world and their especial way of understanding life.

The City of Children was founded in 1956 following the ideas of Father Silva. As the seat for this educational and social project they chose Benposta, a large estate in Seixalvo, Ourense. Benposta became a city in its own right, with its own rules, own currency and own town hall.

The City of Children was a unique educational and social experience. Their goal was to achieve a better society and their pillars were: citizen’s harmony, education, work (learning how to think with their hands) and artistic training.

Artistic training was at the core of the project, and the circus was one of its most important disciplines. The circus started operating in 1966 and from that moment on it became Benposta’s most well-known facet.

Two originals posters you can get on the €500 and €1000 rewards. On the left for promotion in France and Belgium. On the right to promotion in Eastern Europe

Year after year, Benposta’s population multiplied, as well as the city’s activities. Pottery and metallurgy workshops were held. They also had their own television channel, a petrol station and a hotel.

This social experiment, where children lived together in a self-government system, had replicas in other countries, such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia and Japan, among others.

The Nation of Children broke many established rules. It was the first Spanish democracy since the Civil War and founded the first children-only circus.

This innovative idea, at the height of Franco’s dictatorship, was doomed to failure. But the enthusiasm of a young seminarian, Father Silva, and the children’s hope for change, made this magnificent utopia to become real.

The Nation of Children, thanks to its public face the Circus of Children, was a big global success — they travelled around the world, they met celebrities and were granted audience by many royal families. They achieved the peak of their success, but after several glorious decades Father Silva’s dream started to vanish, so much so that these days very few people know the achievements of this small group of dreamers.

It is high time to pay a well deserved homage to the **Nation of Children, so that they don’t sink into oblivion.**

We will use three different narrative threads to tell the story.

Interviews with the protagonists.

We can count on the collaboration of many people who were Benposta citizens both during the golden years and more recently. Thanks to their testimonies we will get to know step by step how this society was ruled and organized, but more importantly how this experienced affected the lives of all those who spent a time in Benposta.

Archive footage.

The visual aspect of the film is essential in order to travel back in time and become imbued with the circus atmosphere, with their trips and tours. Plenty of photographs will lead us through the history of Benposta.

Tonhito de Poi

We don’t want this documentary to be just a succession of photographs and interviews. We want to tell a story and share it with the public. And that’s why we have an exceptional guide, Tonhito de Poi, who will lead us all along the film. He will help us disentangle Benposta’s long and intense history. Tonhito used to be a member of the bravú rock band Os heredeiros da Crus, very well known in Galicia. Later he would start a new band, A Banda de Poi, and currently he can be seen as a member of the band on the TVG show Land Rober.

But not many people know about his connections with Benposta. Tonhito got acquainted with the City of Children **in their later years. And he became captivated right away, so much so that became a Benposta citizen. He was with **Father Silva during the last months of his life, an experience which marked him for ever. We share with Tonhito the same goal — to keep Benposta alive.

Our aim is to grant the City of Children the recognition they deserve and help to rescue them from oblivion. We believe the city of Ourense hasn’t acknowledged yet the role of the Children as “ambassadors” of Ourense or their artistry. The film’s aim is ambitious but fair — to have a street devoted to Benposta in the city of Ourense.

Benposta was born as a place where children were the most important and we would like to profit from the good values that were taught there all along its history — solidarity, respect and the care for children.

Albert Brull: Direction.

Albert is the film director and the driving force of the project. He has a professional career in photography. As a photographer he has worked for publishing houses. He was a photography teacher in Barcelona for eleven years and has worked as a still photographer in several feature films. He has lived in Galicia for a few years. There, he worked as a television editor. Later, he started working for art documentaries and several commercials.

Rubén Cao: Sound. Photography. RPA pilot.

Rubén started his professional career as a sound technician. He is an experimented studio and live sound engineer. He has worked with musicians like Miguel Costas, Cómplices or Reincidentes. Under the auspices of Alfonso Parra, he became a director of photography, and as such he worked in series as El Quid and PIB. Currently he teaches Audiovisual Media in Celanova’s CEIP Curros Enríquez. He is an AESA certified drone pilot.

Dirk Van de Vondel: Animation.

Dirk is a Belgian illustrator who has created commercials for companies like Seat, Coca-Cola, Siemens, Canal +, MTV and Nokia. He will be in charge of the animations that will link the different parts of the documentary.

Daniel Gallego: Still Photography and Art.

Daniel studied Art Photography at the Antón Faílde Art School, and Digital Post-production at the Workshop Experience, Madrid. He has worked as a photographer and designer for Ourense Film Festival (OUFF). He has also worked as a photographer for over forty music concerts and festivals. He has made portraits of bands like Motrhead, Wilco, OKGo and Pulp.

Alba Araújo: Screenplay.

Alba has an Audiovisual Communication degree from the USC (Compostela University, 2007). She has got a Creativity and Screenplays master’s degree from Globomedia (2010) and Voz Audiovisual (2012). She also works as a screenwriter for Los hombres de Paco (Antena 3) and O faro (TVG).

Charo Lamas: Research.

Charo works as a researcher for this project. She has been researching and collecting documentation for over a year and a half.

José A. Blanco: Edition.

He studied production at the Vigo Image and Sound School. He has worked in feature films like 'Ilegal' and 'El bosque de música' (both by Ignacio Vilar) and TV series like 'Rías Baixas' and 'Fíos'. He has written and directed several short films, like 'Véndese, baixo prezo, pouco uso', 'Ramas secas' and 'Silencio'.

• 1. We have free access to Benposta’s facilities. We will be able to shoot footage in the same facilities where this story took place.
• 1. We have unpublished photographs, by courtesy of many Benposta citizens.
• 1. We have first-hand testimonies of many Benposta citizens, who tell us about their lives in the circus as a way of collaboration.
• 1. We are a heterogeneous group, coming from different professions: photography, video, animation, etc. We can cover a great many disciplines and we are highly-trained to carry out this project.
• 1. We take a great deal of care over the image and the edition. Benposta used to pay a lot of attention to the image — not only in their coins and graffiti, but also in their promotional posters and their costumes. We must respect this tradition and we want to take a great deal of care over the visual aspect of the film in three ways: image composition, edition, and animation.cumental gracias a tres pilares; la composición de la imagen, la edición y la animación.
• 1. Animation. Animator Dirk Van de Vondel is part of our team. He has a large experience and will create an exclusive animation for this film.
• 1. Technical means. For Revolution Circus, we have the latest technology at our disposal — Black Magic film cameras, 10-metre crane, and drones for aerial shots.

30,000 €. We want this documentary to be a work to be proud of, and that’s why we need your help. The money is for equipment rental: cameras, sound and lighting. Also for flights to different locations —Canary Island, Madrid, Barcelona, Galicia— and for the crew’s accommodation and allowances.

• Administration expenses: 3.000 euros.

• Equipment rental: 12.000 euros.

• Production expenses: 15.000 euros.