Dir.: Eve A. Ma contact: info@palominopro.com

Feature documentary: 110 min.

SYNOPSIS – SHORT (word count = 72)

An intimate look at a passionate art form that UNESCO calls part of the "immaterial cultural heritage of mankind," this documentary tells the story of traditional flamenco and the gitano (Spanish Gypsy) community so closely associated with it. Filmed in Spain and narrated by Antonio de la Malena, a professional flamenco singer and gitano, we learn the secrets of an art form that reaches deeply into our souls to touch universal emotions.

SYNOPSIS – FULL (word count = 286)

Our feature documentary filmed in Spain tells the story of flamenco as seen through the eyes of narrator Antonio de la Malena, a professional flamenco singer since the age of 11 and a Spanish gitano (Gypsy). An art form that UNESCO calls part of the “immaterial cultural heritage of mankind,” flamenco is not what you usually see in stage productions and nightclub performances that use that name.

We were saddled with the assumption that, as one of our experts puts it, "flamenco can't be defined." To overcome this, the film includes a great deal of performance by world-class professionals, and short interviews in which they describe what the art form means to them and where they get their inspiration. And because of flamenco's strong connection to Spain's gitano (Gypsy) community, we tell a bit of this fascinating history plus include songs from the Gypsies/Romá of India and the Middle East.

Traditional flamenco is based primarily on the singing, the cante. To make this accessible to an American public, we use subtitles to translate the cante solos and in addition, placed short dramatic scenes over portions of the singing. But along with the cante solos, we also have plenty of dance, and some very fine guitar solos.

The documentary demonstrates the close connection between flamenco and people's daily life, especially farm work. There are also sections showing its association with fishing, fishmongers, and miners, and there are jailhouse songs. A portion of the documentary focuses on the flamenco and universal sentiments, then de la Malena looks to the likely future of this art form.

Finally, we conclude with a lively "fin de fiesta" with 10 performers, and de la Malena's hope that traditional flamenco will not perish.

Dir.: Eve A. Ma contact: info@palominopro.com

FILMMAKER’S BIO

Eve A. Ma is an award-winning, self-taught filmmaker. Like many who are self-taught, she began with extremely low-budget productions and a crew composed largely of students. Her first major productions were two episodes in a series about world music and dance, one called A Zest for Life and the other, Of Beauty & Deities, about Afro-Peruvian music and dance and southern India classical bharatanatyam, respectively.

Both aired over individual PBS stations and used music and dance to explore the culture of the community which produced them. Both also screened not only in the USA but also abroad, principally in Western Europe (France, Germany and Greece).

As her productions became more sophisticated, her work began to screen in mainstream festivals and a documentary she completed in early 2019, Masters of Rhythm (shot in Peru), was uploaded to the national educational television network.

Currently, Ma is completing work on Flamenco: the Land Is Still Fertile (shot in Spain), plus working on a short piece about the Sikh community in the United States. She is also planning one long documentary and one dramatic feature, both of which she will shoot in California.

Dir.: Eve A. Ma contact: info@palominopro.comFAQs

Why flamenco?

The original idea for this documentary came from Antonio de la Malena, a man who has spent most of his life as a professional in this art form. It is something he holds very dear to his heart. Eve A. Ma has loved flamenco for most of her adult life and has spent several years in Spain. She has also created other documentaries about music and dance, but flamenco has always been particularly important to her, so the choice seemed obvious.

What were the principal difficulties you encountered?

The two greatest difficulties were in scheduling, and in putting together a good crew. In terms of scheduling, all of the professionals we filmed do a great deal of touring. In addition, although Ma does spend part of the year in Spain, her home is in California. Coordinating, especially being sure that Ma and Malena would both be in the same place at the same time, got to be tricky at times. We filmed primarily in Jerez de la Frontera, a city with a strong flamenco tradition and many great artists. However, in terms of technical personnel, while it has plenty of professionals in staging, it is not so strong in film/video production personnel. We ended up bringing some key professionals down from Sevilla.

Who choose the performers? Who chose what part of the performance to include?

As a professional flamenco singer (cantaor) since the age of 11 and someone who knew all of the people involved, Antonio de la Malena chose most of the performers. However, Eve A. Ma chose a few and she also chose the specific verses of songs that we would use in the documentary, as well as choosing what parts of the dances we would use. Her first rule of thumb was that each major soloist got three minutes. This meant that with two exceptions, we only included part of a solo, not the complete performance. Ma chose the verses of the singers based on what fit best into the narrative and what would be easiest to illustrate. With respect to the dance, she chose a section that would be exciting and also seem complete.

Why scenes to illustrate the singing?

Since the documentary is entirely in Spanish but it is intended for an international audience, in addition to translating the lyrics of the solo songs, we placed short scenes over part of each singing solo to visually illustrate the meaning of the words.

Who choose the consultants?

Both director Eve A. Ma and associate director Antonio de la Malena chose the consultants.

Dir.: Eve A. Ma contact: info@palominopro.comHow was the narration created?

Part of the narration came from interviews with Malena. Part came from long discussions between the director and associate director (Ma and Malena) as to the nature and history of flamenco, and part came from research. In order for the documentary to have a good flow, the narration was then written down, with many changes as seemed appropriate to accurately express what the narrator believed.

Dir.: Eve A. Ma contact: info@palominopro.comPRODUCTION CREDITS:

DIRECTOREve A. Ma

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORAntonio de la Malena

PRODUCEREve A. Ma

NARRATORAntonio de la Malena

CAMERAEve A. Ma

Eduardo MonteroRoberto Aguilar--and others—

SOUNDCarlos Pérez

Juan EgoscozábalAntonio Moreno Jiménez

--and others--

LIGHTSSergio Monje--and others—

EDITOREve A. Ma

Dir.: Eve A. Ma contact: info@palominopro.comPOST-PRODUCTION SOUND & IMAGE CORRECTION

Carlos Pérez (expected)Visualize This, LLC (expected)

GRAPHICSJoshua Harper Hyman

--and others—

HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHSMuseum of English Rural Life

The Granger Collection--and others--

ARCHIVAL VIDEOSMelitta Tchaicovsky

JooKoo HoriaÁngel Sánchez Garro

CONSULTANTSDiego Fernández (Dir., Instituto de la Cultura Gitana)

Manuel Morao (former Dir., Gitanos de Jerez and others)Pepe Marín (former radio host, Flamenco a la Una)

Manuel Ríos Ruiz (author of articles and encyclopedia about flamenco)Estela Zatania (writer for Jondoweb.com and others)

PRINCIPAL SOLO PERFORMERSAntonio AgujetasManuel Agujetas

Jairo AmayaAntonio el Pipala Elu de Jerez

la MacanitaAntonio de la Malena

Dir.: Eve A. Ma contact: info@palominopro.comManuel de Malena

Luis MoneoManuel Moneo

Diego del MoraoMaría del Mar MorenoNiño Jero el Periquín

Manuel Parrillala Paula

Tía Juana la del Pipa

SPECIAL THANKSMedia Art Works (MAW)

Bodega Gonzalez Byass (Tío Pepe)AND

Centro Andaluz de Documentación del FlamencoInstituto de la Cultura Gitana

--and others--

Dir.: Eve A. Ma contact: info@palominopro.com