2013-12-16
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Two Children, Two Worlds, One Music
In this Oscar Winning documentary short film, students in their final year at the National Ballet School of Canada are seen learning the flamenco from Susana and Antonio Robledo, who come to the school every winter to conduct classes which are held after the day's regular schedule has ended.
Throughout the streets of Huelva, a man with his guitar has been disambiguating for years, day and night he goes out into the streets to make a living asking for money in bars and terraces. His guitar almost never has the six strings, his hands are dirty, his mind long ago could not stand the life that he had to live, and he continues as he can stuck to that guitar with which he expresses himself continuously, indefatigable. That vagabond, an omnipresent street artist, is the "Niño Miguel", considered by many to be the best guitarist in the history of flamenco, a genius who revolutionized the guitar with only two records in the 70s, a source of inspiration for all other guitarists... a guitarist of guitarists, a living legend, a mystery, a misunderstood genius, excluded from society: The shadow of the strings.
Documentary based on the figure of Manuel Agujetas (Manuel de los Santos Pastor 1939-2015), mythical cantaor and one of the last representatives of the Flamenco de Jerez school. Essential figure of flamenco.
The film presents thirteen rhythms of flamenco, each with song, guitar, and dance: the up-tempo bularías, a brooding farruca, an anguished martinete, and a satiric fandango de huelva. There are tangos, a taranta, alegrías, siguiriyas, soleás, a guajira of patrician women, a petenera about a sentence to death, villancicos, and a final rumba.
A musical, and also a reflection on watching, on trying to escape an anthropocentric gaze and also on watching itself in cinema. Featuring mares and horses: Triana, Víctor K, Bambi Sailor, San Special Solano, Buck Red Skin, Onkaia, Cool Boy, the donkey Agostino, the mule Guapa. And also Alfredo Lagos, Raül Refree, María Marín, Pepe Habichuela, Virgina García del Pino, María García Ruiz, Pilar Monsell, María Pérez Sanz.
In this magnificently presented DVD CD, Niña Pastori performs the 12 songs on the album accompanied by her musicians, shot with five cameras by director Juan Estelrich with enormous sensitivity and quality. Setlist: 1.Principio 2.Espinas 3.Imposible 4.El Loco Del Barrio 5.En Tres Minutos 6.Puede Ser 7.La Cuna 8.Santo Romero 9.La Tata 10.En Los Rincones De Mi Casa 11.Como Me Duele 12.Final
In a Gypsy village, the fathers of Candela and José promise their children to each other. Years later, the unfaithful José marries Candela but while defending his lover Lucía in a brawl, he is stabbed to death. Carmelo, who secretly loves Candela since he was a boy, is arrested while helping José and unfairly sent to prison. Four years later he is released and declares his love for Candela. However, the woman is cursed by a bewitched love and every night she goes to the place where José died to dance with his ghost.
In his time of greatest splendor, the singer Miguel 'Bambino' Vargas Jiménez (1940-99) was the last frontier of flamenco, an immense musical genre that he developed and brought closer to large audiences: an artist of artists, the idol of the roadside bars, whose inimitable style, scenic magnetism and heartbreaking personality made of his figure a myth, a king without a kingdom, a giant of the popular music of the 20th century.
"Nueve Sevillas" is a heterodox psycho-geographical profile of the new flamenco in Seville. Nine characters coexist with the great flamenco artists of today.
Enrique Morente's three sons tell the story of their father: the most revolutionary flamenco in history. Despite criticism from purists, he opened cante jondo to cultured poetry, brought it closer to young university students, explored its Arab roots and paired it with rock and other contemporary sounds. Much of the Spanish music of the last decades is heir to his findings.
Caco is a proud, handsome man, head of a family, and very powerful in the local community. Yet he has been torn to pieces by the death of his beloved daughter. He constantly visits her grave, weeps silently at her photo and has transferred all his wildly protective love and attention onto his mentally challenged nephew, Diego. It seems that Diego's father, Caco's brother, is in hiding after having killed a man from the Caravaca family, who are equally powerful in the community. They are looking for vengeance and have come to Caco for justice. When he refuses to betray his brother, the Caravacas grow impatient. When they realize they are getting nowhere, they threaten to kill Diego. Despite his fierce pride, Caco eventually realizes that the cycle of killing and revenge must be broken. But how can he achieve this and protect everyone he loves?
Filmed like a documentary, "Sevillanas" consists of eleven short performances by Spain's most famous flamenco dancers, singers and guitarists. Saura, well-known for his flamenco films ("Blood Wedding," "Carmen"), here provides an in-depth look at the Sevillanas form of flamenco and its dancers.
The documentary is a summary of Paco de Lucía's career, his art, his human category and his life, from his first artistic steps to his last professional steps, which have been marked by flamenco. Numerous testimonies and interviews carried out between 2010 and 2014 are exposed.
A look at the history and traditions of flamenco music and dance.