On the Southbank in the rain a group of people carrying flags assembles. Someone is filming them. Why? They gather in front of a tormented bronze figure dwarfed by the London Eye. It is a memorial to the International Brigades, those who volunteered to fight in Spain in 1936. These people are doing what memorials ask us to do – remember. Some are the children and grandchildren of volunteers. For them it is family history. And the others? What does it matter to anyone else what happened in Spain 70 years ago? That is a question that we, the filmmakers, Margaret and Pepe, keep asking ourselves. We know it matters to us but the reasons are not instantly obvious and are different for each of us. Vertigo Volume 3 | Issue 2 | Summer 2006
