Title: William Waldren. L’empremta de l’alquimista
Duration: 61 min
Year: 2021
Genre: Documentary
VO: Catalan / Spanish / English
Target: All audiences
Direction and script: Joan Bonet
Director of photography: Jaume Caldentey
Production: Núria Cano
Literary treatment: Maties Salom
Original music: Josep Umbria
Graphic design: Luis Ozonas
A production of La Perifèrica in co-production with IB3 Televisió de les Illes Balears. With the participation of the Consell of Mallorca and the ICIB.
Synopsis
Painter, sculptor and artistic designer, William Waldren was a pioneer in the study of prehistory in the Balearic Islands. From 1953, the year he arrived in Mallorca, he collected documents, writings, drawings, photographs and filming of the most spectacular archaeological sites on the island and, by extension, in the Mediterranean. He was also an active part of the cultural movement in Deià from the late 1950s, he created “Els 10 des Teix”, an avant-garde artistic-poetic collective.
Awards
- Competition Section at The Archeology Channel (TAC) International Film Festival (Oregon, USA) Winner of the Most Inspiring Film Award 5 Honorable Mentions:
Film, Narration, Educational Value for the Audience, Screenplay, Audience Favorite. (May 2022) - Grand prize of the Festival (ex-aequo) at FICAB XXI
William Waldren came to the island that captivated Robert Graves looking for inspiration. It was the 1950s, and Mallorca was a magnet for artists and amateurs, and he was one of them. Restless and curious, on an organized outing to photograph the Muleta cave, in Sóller, he made a discovery that changed his life forever.
A site with more than a thousand specimens of Myotragus Balearicus, a mammal endemic to Mallorca, Menorca and Sardinia, which had a decisive influence on the Prehistory chronology of that area of the Mediterranean.
William Waldren (1924-2003), multifaceted, charismatic and controversial artist, was self-taught in archeology and the study of the Prehistory of the Balearic Islands.
