Producer / Director

Stephen Higgins

How did you, an American in California, end up making a movie about a bullfighter in Spain?

After seeing a few bullfights, I wanted to shoot a photo project. There are a lot of things in the corrida (bullfight) designed to awe, visually. It's a performance that has aspects of acting, dancing and athletics.

How did that morph into making a movie?

Many people - for whatever reason - talked about wanting to see a movie about this, which everyone has heard of but hardly anyone outside of Spain, France or Latin America knows anything about. 

Jose Antonio del Moral, a spanish bullfight writer I met in Mexico, had a similar idea. So we joined forces and were shooting in Spain a few weeks later. We were lucky to have found two talented and passionate cinematographers, Christopher Jenkins and James Morton-Haworth, who stayed with it for three years.

During post-production, Nina Gilden Seavey joined as producer and eventually co-director, bringing many years of filmmaking experience to the project. With all that and John Califra's musical talent and the editing skills of Ian Rummer, "The Matador" became the intense, emotional experience it was meant to be.

Where did you see your first bullfight, and what was your reaction to it?

I'd never wanted to see one. But it was at one of those points in life when you're open to new things. After seeing the bullfight, it felt bad, it seemed unfair, something that was hard to rationalize.

So you didn't like it?

There were distasteful parts of it. Sad. But it hit a nerve somewhere. It seemed real somehow. Although I left the bullring with no desire to see another corrida, that changed. The imagery of that day kept creeping back.

Why did you need to go back?

I'm still not sure that the power of the corrida (bullfight) can be summed up in any one statement. But the corrida reminded me of the challenges we must accept as living beings, and how we must accept them gracefully. And its a jolting reminder of mortality.

What do you say to people who believe that bullfighting is cruel?

It is. And it will probably continue evolving, to minimize animal suffering, as it has in the past.

But our way of life in America depends on enormous cruelty to animals. Most animals raised for food suffer far more than would a bull raised for the corrida.

Bulls raised for the corrida graze openly in very large areas. They eat very well. Then, during the corrida, there are 15 very intense minutes. But the animal is given an opportunity to be as savage and strong and noble and courageous as it can be. And sending the bull back to the range for displaying bravery does happen.

Meat-eating and hunting are widely accepted in our society, yet many Americans object to bullfighting. What do you make of that contradiction?

One of the reasons that the corrida will never be widely admired here is because we have a strong sense of fair play. The corrida is definitely not a sport - but it will always be seen by us as a contest. We're a sports-minded nation.

Spain is maybe a little more receptive still to seeing things differently. This helps Spaniards to see the torero as an artist - a dancer, and an actor - playing in a drama of man vs. nature.

But since our default metaphor is sports, the bullfight seems like a contest where the cards are stacked against the underdog, whom we love. The Cinderella team, the Boston Red Sox, the Bad News Bears - the underdog is our hero. And here's a spectacle where the people seem to be cheering the fact that the underdog is losing.

So aside from the fact that you're killing an animal, in front of thousands of cheering people, you're not playing fair. You're kicking a guy when he's down. The torero is seen as a villain, because he's beating the underdog.

Would you recommend the bullfight to others?

No. That's a choice one has to make.