Pedro Almodóvar, Werner Herzog, Wolfgang Petersen, Juan Antonio Bardem, Ugo Tognazi, Ana Belén, Monte Hellman, María Lidón, Ron Howard, Laura Schroeder, Xavier Gens, Daniel Calparsoro, Peter Yates,... These are some of the many film directors who have chosen Lanzarote and La Graciosa as a setting to shoot their films.
Now, all the information about their films, and many more, shot on the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa can be consulted in a single website: Memoria del Cine en Lanzarote, a project of Memoria Digital de Lanzarote, dependent on the Cabildo de Lanzarote, which was presented this past Thursday at the last conference of the Memoria de los Jueves 2026 cycle
The conference was titled Island of Cinema. Cinematic Memory of Lanzarote, the person in charge of giving it was the researcher and film expert Saúl Rojas, who has also been the person commissioned by the Cabildo of Lanzarote to create the website.
In the talk – which again presented full capacity, like the other three conferences of Memory of Thursdays 2026 – Saúl Rojas proposed a look at the territory of Lanzarote and La Graciosa as a great cinematographic archive, going through cinema and television productions filmed on both islands and reflecting on the footprint, often scattered, that filming leaves: unidentified locations, lost graphic material or data that dissolves over time. Rojas sprinkled his presentation with anecdotes about the filming itself or the difficulties in locating people who worked on said productions and the material they treasure about them, such as unpublished photographs of the filming
Scenes from many of the films shot on the island could be seen, reviewing decades; emphasis was placed on some television series that were relevant and have been forgotten over time; and a special space was dedicated to Heraclio Niz, the "Chicken of Arrecife," probably the Canarian who has appeared on screen the most throughout history.
A unique website in the Canary Islands
Lastly, the website Memoria del Cine en Lanzarote was presented, an initiative aimed at safeguarding and valuing the cinematographic activity developed on the islands through the compilation of photographic and advertising material, the identification of filming locations, and the documentation of productions ranging from feature fiction films to series and miniseries, including technical and artistic teams and the historical context of each filming. Furthermore, press kits with what was published in the media at the time can be consultedThe objective is to build a useful consultation repository for researchers, filmmakers, teachers, and the general public, and to contribute to cinema remaining a living, accessible, and well-documented heritage. The portal not only allows consultation of filming by genre and decades, but also by municipalities and specific locations, something that makes it unique in its category in the Canary Islands. For example, by clicking on a specific place on the map, Los Jameos del Agua, we can see all the filming that has taken place there.Rojas concluded his presentation acknowledging that the website is a living project that is growing, since although practically all the films and series shot on both islands are there, there are some productions that are known to have been developed in past decades, especially in the 70s, and for which no material has been found and it is not even known if it is preserved.
“Continue working along these lines”
The counselor of the Data and Memory Center of Lanzarote, Ascensión Toledo, was in charge of presenting the event, and in her speech she wanted to express her gratitude "to the César Manrique Foundation for the cession of this space and for its constant collaboration with cultural initiatives that foster reflection and critical thinking", as well as "to the team of the Data Center, whose rigorous and sustained work has made possible the organization of this cycle and its commitment to the preservation and dissemination of our collective memory".Toledo also thanked "the generosity of all the speakers who have participated in this edition of Memory of Thursdays, sharing their knowledge and experience", the collaboration of the Publications Service of the Cabildo de Lanzarote and, especially, "the public who have attended the talks, confirming with their presence the interest and the need for spaces for meeting and reflection like this cycle. This encourages us to continue working in this direction", the councilor concluded.
Memory of the Thursdays 2026
The conference series "Memory of Thursdays" is organized by the Data Center, a department of the Cabildo de Lanzarote headed by councilor Ascensión Toledo, and has the collaboration of the César Manrique Foundation. Its main objective is to reflect on the role of photographic and audiovisual archives in today's society, as well as to make the public aware of the collections, contents, works, and projects developed by Digital Memory of Lanzarote.The Publications Service of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has also collaborated, making available to attendees of the talks copies of some of the cultural books published by the corporationThe conferences can be seen on the Memoria de Lanzarote YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MemoriaDeLanzarote
