Spanish film editor Marta Bonet de Gispert was destined for the top of the film industry from the very start of her career. The uniquely talented editor has an eye for the perfect shot and an ability to sequence the scenes of a film, television show or music video in a way that drives home the overall message of the project.
After obtaining her B.A. in Film from the University School of Cinema and Visual Communication of Catalonia (ESCAC) with a specialty in editing, Marta was chosen to edit Antoni Verdaguer’s Raval, Raval.
Often referred to as one of the most colourful barrios where prostitution and poverty intermixes in an area that includes some of the country’s hippest bars, the documentary feature film Raval, Raval marvelously exposes viewers to the lives of a wide range of people living in Barcelona’s Raval neighbourhood.
Marta says Raval Raval “is a fusion film; it penetrates inside the Raval to offer a portrait that includes very different people through the fusion of reality and fiction. Racism, coexistence, social class, domestic abuse, real estate speculation, and friendship are some of the topics that we were interested in showing as an essential part of this film.”
A huge testament to the caliber of film collaborations Marta was involved with from the start, Raval, Raval director Antoni Verdaguer received a Gaudi Award in 2013 for his film Jordi Dauder, la revolució pendent.
To achieve the dynamic story portrayed in the film Ravel, Raval, Marta adds, “We basically blended elements of fiction with others from documentaries, non-contiguous to each other, but genuinely mixed and fused along the various frames to interweave several stories that find their common ground in this Barcelona neighbourhood.”
Being Marta’s first film as a lead editor, the fact that Raval, Raval was nominated for the award for Best Film in Catalan Language at the 2007 Barcelona Film Awards was a telling sign of the successful career she would continue to have in the field.
The film not only reached an incredible level of international success, but in 2012 it was also used as a reference point and source in Lara N. Dotson-Renta’s book “Immigration, Popular Culture, and the Re-routing of European Muslim Identity.”
The following year Marta was the editor on Alejandro Marzoa’s multi-award winning film Temporada 92-93. Produced and distributed by Escandola Films, Temporada 92-93 is a dramatic comedy that follows Carlos Blanco (Volver, The Apostle, Heroina) and award-winning actor Miguel De Lira (Crebinsky, Paco’s Men, Mar Libre, No Rest for the Wicked) as they sit at a picnic table glued to the transistor radio listening to a Celta Vigo soccer game.
Their wives unsuccessfully try to pull their attention away from the game and direct them towards Miguel’s son’s birthday party, but the men continue to huff, puff and yell vigorously at the radio until the women give up.
Marta does a marvelous job of editing the film in a way that allows the high-tension the men experience as they listen to the game to come through juxtaposed with scenes of the children at the birthday party running around light-heartedly.
The film was an international hit winning countless awards and being nominated for several others including a nomination for Best Editing from the Terrasa Film Festival.
Marta Bonet de Gispert went on to receive her M.F.A in Motion Pictures & Television with a specialty in directing from the Academy of Art University of San Francisco. As an editor some of her other films include Torn Together, Soldados, Cheese Cake, Padre Modelo, Left and the film Gored, which was recently chosen as an Official Selection of the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.
If one thing can be seen from Marta’s body of work it is that her talents are diverse. Not only is she an extraordinary editor, but she is also the writer and director behind the upcoming film El Otro Lado, which was recently produced by La Panda and Wand Entertainment. The film is scheduled to premiere this summer in the U.S. during La Panda’s event, Summer of Shorts.