Enrique Nicanor
Enrique Nicanor is a film and TV producer/director, writer and designer best known for his works for public service broadcasting as Director of TVE-2, the Spanish Public TV and the creation of :es:La Gallina Caponata|Caponata and Perezgil, the Spanish muppets of Sesame Street. He began as a designer and film animation Director in Cuba. Based in Paris and Spain he was Board member and President of INPUT-TV, The International Public TV Conference and Film trainer at , and the European Commission Learning Network. Independent producer since 1988.
Personal background
The son of a Galician family of modest landowners, Nicanor's parents emigrated after the Spanish Civil war to New York joining their family there. In 1950 the family established their home in Havana where he studied Fine Arts at The National School of Fine Arts Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" and Philosophy and History of Arts at the University of Havana. In 1965 the family left Cuba and he went to Paris to work as animation director and cameraman with producer Serge Danot. In 1967, Mr. Adolfo Suárez, Director of the recently created Spanish Public TV, invited E. Nicanor to come back to Spain and join the new institution where he produced and directed films and documentaries till 1983 becoming that year Director of the channel. In 1988 he left the Spanish institution to work internationally as an independent producer/consultor promoting public broadcasting service within institutions such as INPUT-TV, collaborating as professional film trainer at the European Audiovisual workshop and producing for international TV channels.Early works in Cuba and France
- 1959, Cartoonist and designer for the Cuban newspaper Prensa Libre and the weekly magazine Bohemia at the time that Cuban Revolution took the political power.
- 1960, Founder, Animator and Director of the Animation Department of ICAIC - Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos together with artists Jesús de Armas, Tulio Raggi, Eduardo Muñoz-Bachs, Modesto García, Hernán Henríquez, Harry Read, Jorge Carruana, Wichy R. Nogueras, Paco Prats and other pioneers who created the first Cuban animation films.
- 1965, Director, animator and cameraman with producer Serge Danot, co-producer Ivor Wood and scenographer Rafael Esteve for the Public French TV programme series The Magic Roundabout.
Filmography Cuba (ICAIC">Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos">ICAIC)
Filmography France, (ORTF">Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française">ORTF) The French Public TV
Filmography Spain, [RTVE], The Spanish Public TV
- In 1967, Mr. Adolfo Suárez, Director of the recently created Spanish Public TV, invited E. Nicanor to come back to Spain and join the new institution. He produced the Children series "The Adventures of Mumu the Bull", a new puppet animation series and started the channel production of documentaries, series and programmes in film format until 1983 when he became Channel director of TVE-2.
| Year | Title | Spanish title | Description/network | Starring |
| 1967 | The Adventures of Mumu the Bull | Las Aventuras de Mumú | Animation puppet series for small children, 26 Episodes | Mumú, Lolita, Mondoñedo, D. Tontón |
| 1967 | First Day of School | El primer dia de escuela | First "free cinema" Doc. for TVE on education / Ramiro de Maetzu School | Host: Ivan Tubau |
| 1967 | Images to Learn | Imágenes para saber | Weekely cultural magazine / Film segments co-director with video Director Ricardo Arias | First appearance in TV of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente |
| 1968 | School Television | Televisión escolar | School daily magazine / Film segments co-director with video Director Ricardo Arias | Felix Rodríguez de la Fuente, Carmen Esther, Manolo Portillo... |
How it is How to do it, TV Series on crafts, arts and industry/ Cómo es Cómo se hace
| Episode | Title | Spanish title | Description | Notes |
| 1970 | Front Page: Mexico: Luis Echeverria president | A toda plana: Elecciones en México. Would presidente Luís Echeverría re-establish relations with Franco's Spain? | Documentary on President Luis Echeverria takeover ceremony and possible re-establishing diplomatic relations. | Commissioned by |
| 1970 | Cheste a Cell of New Families | Cheste, una célula universitaria para nuevas familias | New education at the Cheste Labour University, Cheste, Valencia | Host: |
| 1970 | Galileo Galilei | Galileo Galilei | Pilot for the series The History of Science | Scientific advisor: Dr. Roberto Saumells |
| 1973 | Trip to the Moon | Viaje a la luna | Fiction episode for the series "La Comparsa" | Gabriel Fariza, Miriam de Maeztu, Juan Margallo, Marcelo Rubal |
| 1973 | The Hunting of the Snark | La caza del Snark | Fiction episode for the series "La Comparsa" | Francisco Merino and Quique San Francisco |
| 1976 | Platero and I, Juan Ramón Jiménez | Platero y yo, Juan Ramón Jiménez | Fiction episode for the series "Books" | Script by :es:Miguel Marías|Miguel Marías and Enrique Nicanor Agustín González, Gerardo Maya, Ana de Yebra |
| 1979 | The Invasion of the Street Comediants | Els Comediants invaden la ciudad | Special programme representing TVE at the Montreux TV Music Festival | Theater group :es:Comediants|Els Comediants |
| 1982-1983 | Robinson | Robinson | Youth weekly magazine for literature and games | Felicidad Orquín, Gabriel Fariza. Ondas TV Award'82 |
The Rules of the Game, TV series on social anthropology
Barrio Sésamo, the Spanish co-production of Sesame Street
Noah Ark / El arca de Noé, series on wildlife and nature
1983, Head of the Children Programmes Unit at RTVE
1983-1987 Channel Director for TVE-2, the Cultural channel of RTVE
President of http://input-tv.org/home INPUT-TV, The International Public TV Conference
- 1983, Elected member of the Board of INPUT-TV, The Public TV International Conference, invited by the founders of the institution, Howard Klein, Mike Fentiman Jim Day, Sergio Borelli and :fr:Michel Anthonioz|Michel Anthonioz.
- 1987, Hosted and organised the INPUT-TV International Conference held in 1987-Granada, Spain.
- 1995, Hosted and organised the INPUT-TV International Conference held in 1995-San Sebastian, Spain.
- 1997, Elected President of INPUT-TV He held the Conferences of 1997-Nantes, France, 1998-Stuttgart, Germany, 1999-Fort Worth, USA, 2000-Halifax, Canada and 2001-Cape Town, South Africa.
European Institutions, https://eave.org EAVE and the [MEDIA Programme]
- 1987, Appointed Commissioner for European Audiovisual policies at the Spanish Ministry of Culture. He organised the “First European Year of Cinema” ceremony at Madrid under the presidency of Mme. Simone Veil and the King and Queen of Spain.
- Hosted the first international meeting of the Media Programme Initiative at the Barcelona Film Festival’87.
- 1987, Joined the foundational group of EAVE, The European Audiovisual Training Programme together with European producers Raymond Ravar, Eckart Stein, Jacques Bidou, Luciano Gloor and Marcia Lerner, working as Group Leader and representing Spain as National Coordinator.
- As EAVE National Coordinator he hosted the EAVE workshops:
- EAVE 1999-Madrid
- EAVE 2001-Seville
- EAVE 2003- A Coruña
- EAVE 2005-Santiago de Compostela
- As Head of Studies he organised "EAVE Arc Atlantic” and "EAVE Alpes-Rhine" for European Regions together with EAVE expert and producer Jacqueline Pierreux:
- EAVE 1995 in Lisbon
- EAVE 1996, in Besançon, Saarbrücken and Torino.
- EAVE 2005 La Coruña, Brest and Cardiff
Independent films and documentaries
Interviews within films and programmes
Awards and nominations
- 1982 Ondas award for lifetime achievement in TV
- 2005 Golden Medal of the Galician Audiovisual Academy to lifetime achievement