The image of a city through the film industry: Ourense in Los Girasoles Ciegos

Abstract

With the goal of building an image and attract tourism, cities, regions, areas and even countries try to put on march communication actions to show their potential as a destination for rest and fun. Far away from the advertisement techniques and their persuasive and commercial aims, this article proposes the movies as the perfect way to show the possibilities and the features of a territory using the typical cinema tools as the audiovisual language and its majesty, as well as the added value of the film history and its main characters. This research focuses on the particular case of the shooting of Los Girasoles Ciegos in the Galician city of Ourense to check how the projection helped to create a real image of the old town, offering the spectator a reliable reading of what he can find in this city with an enormous tourist potential, especially in the cultural and thermal field.