(Almost) free live music and stuff, May 2026

Some stuff that I saw in Vitoria, Santander, Torrelavega and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

• 9 May: «Cenizas de Oro» @ Centro Cívico Langraiz-Oka, Tres de Marzo Parkea, 1, Nanclares de la Oca / Langraiz Oka
  A comedy by the amateur theatre group No Me Claves Tus Puñales. Not exactly free as €2 donation (for an NGO to be determined) was requested, but quite worth it.

  

• 15 May: Cantabria en Corto 2025 @ Filmoteca de Cantabria Mario Camus, Calle Bonifaz, 6, Santander
  The programme included Relato del niño que estuvo allí by Sergio Ruiz García; Solo es cuestión de tiempo by Carlos Martínez Pérez; “Solo los muertos se quedan by Alejandro Renedo; Una playa by Juan Carlos Cabañas Soto and Luis Paredes; Instrucciones para quedarse by Caque Trueba; and Wounded Light by Abril Catalina Beascoechea.

  

• 16 May: V Raw Market @ Plaza Mayor, Torrelavega
  Organised by Escuela de Arte Roberto Orallo (Puente San Miguel, Cantabria), this annual event allows the students of the school to present and market the work created during their training. The highlight was a concert of Cantabrian rock band The Haze.

  

• 24 May: Ajódar Poetry Jazz @ Sala Faro, Calle Concejal Manuel Rodríguez Costas, 1, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  The only event of the Deriva Jazz Timur and I attended. We were not impressed. Ajódar Duo, whose members did not bother to introduce themselves, played some jazz (badly) and recited some poetry (worse). On the brighter note, we have discovered a new venue in just a five-minute walk from us.
• 26 May: «Gran poder a de mandar o mar et todo los ventos» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  Dedicated to the quincentenary of the death of Elcano, this concert featured “music around the Iberian circumnavigation routes”. Pedro Bonet employed 14 different recorders — copies of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque models — to play a bedazzling array of works composed and/or collected by Alfonso X el Sabio, Diego Ortiz, Pieter de Vois, Thomas Edward Bowdich, Hans Sloane, Joseph-Marie Amiot, William Hamilton Bird and many others. Part of the cycle Música Antigua en el Patio.

  

• 28 May: «Tiempo de Zafra» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  La Banda Sinfónica de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria featuring Domingo Luis Rodríguez Oramas “El Colorao” on timple and voices of Tania Gil and Pedro Manuel Afonso. The concert included a performance of Zafra, a work for timple and symphony orchestra composed by Laura Vega.

  

And exhibitions:

• 7—31 May: «Color, memoria y gesto» @ Sala de Exposiciones Mauro Muriedas, Calle Pedro Alonso Revuelta, 5, Torrelavega
  Works by Débora Regalado and Alejandro Mesurado.

  

• 8 May — 5 July: «Wetlands» @ El Palacete del Embarcadero, Muelle de Calderón, Santander
  Works by Paula Santomé.

  

Goodbye, May.

O. Henry’s Full House

a film by Henry Koster, Henry Hathaway, Jean Negulesco, Howard Hawks and Henry King
based on short stories by O. Henry

Yesterday, we went to see this film screened as a special “literary” session organised by Asociación de Cine Vértigo. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, bar the completely unnecessary interventions by John Steinbeck. But why Cuatro páginas de la vida (“Four pages of life”) if there are five films in the anthology?

According to Wikipedia,

When the film was first premiered in September 1952 in Los Angeles, it consisted of five parts, including Howard Hawks’ “The Ransom of Red Chief”.

The Hawks short was so poorly received that the studio removed it before the film opened in New York that October, leading some outlets to describe the film as O. Henry’s Four of a Kind.

Remarkable, given that the Red Chief is arguably the funniest part. For me, it is not even “arguably”. It remains a mystery why the Spanish title still refers to the “four”.

One of the films we grew up on, Strictly Business (Деловые люди) by Leonid Gaidai, also includes a brilliant adaptation of The Ransom of Red Chief, starring the great Georgy Vitsin and Aleksei Smirnov. Imprinting and stuff notwithstanding, I think I prefer the Hawks’s version. Kathleen Freeman and Irving Bacon as the parents of J.B. are the best.

And another Soviet cinema connection: the opening scene of The Cop and the Anthem reminded us the final of 1975 Hello, I’m Your Aunt! (Здравствуйте, я ваша тётя!). Considering that the latter movie quotes many classic American comedies, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

“Was that union blessed with any issue?” “Er... What did you say?” “Have they got any children?” “Well...” “You know, those little objects people get after they’re married.” “Yeah. Well, I reckon you could say they have in a way.” “Yeah.” “May I ask what you mean by that foggy response?” “Well, I reckon you could call J.B. a child, if you wanted to.” “J.B.?” “J.B.” “That’s what they call him.” “Oh, it’s a boy.” “I reckon you might, uh, call him a boy.” “Yeah.” “How old is he?” “J.B. is nigh on to 10 now.” “What a lovable age in a boy.” “Where did you say the Dorsets were living now?” “Didn’t say.” “Down the road a piece. A little white house with broken windows.” “You ain’t told us why did you wanna buy the land for.” “You know, I find your conversation rather limited, but very stimulating. Thank you.”

Five animated shorts

I was curious about the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film. Last week I had a chance to watch them all.

Forevergreen

a film by Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears

Moralising and predictable, this film is hands down the wurst of the lot. In case you didn’t know it: pine nuts good, junk food bad.

The Three Sisters

a film by Konstantin Bronzit

The three titular sisters lead their forlorn existence on a small island. Naturally, it’s all transformed when a sailor moves in. This (not so) slightly misogynistic short can make you giggle a couple of times before you get bored.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

a film by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

I wonder what was the real reason for giving this stop-motion animation its Oscar. Yes, it’s technically stunning. The story is rather dubious, to say the least. And I didn’t feel any emotional connection to its, let’s be honest, ugly characters.

Butterfly

a film by Florence Miailhe

Touching and beautiful, Butterfly is based on the life of the Olympic swimmer and Holocaust survivor Alfred Nakache. Now this is the Oscar material.

Retirement Plan

a film by John Kelly

At just seven minutes, this film is the shortest — and, IMHO, the best — of the five.

Éiru

a film by Giovanna Ferrari

From Cartoon Saloon, the creators of The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, comes this charming hand-drawn short. Once again, recommended to me by Timur.

Seven short films

The screening of Latin American documentary shorts organised by Asociación ProDocumentales Cine y TV and Casa de Colón. La Sombra de Don Roberto is probably the most powerful film of the lot but my favourite was Mini Cine Tupy.

El Tambor Mayor by Carlos Lamaitre (Bolivia, 1999) Los Ojos de la Habana by Osvaldo Daicich (Argentina—Cuba, 2000) Road Coffee by Ricardo Benet (Mexico, 1997/2000) Mini Cine Tupy by Sergio Bloch (Brazil, 2003) Comadronas, guardianas de la salud by Rafael Quinteros González (Guatemala, 2004) PTT by Alicia Mata Tur (Venezuela, 2010) La Sombra de Don Roberto by Juan Diego Spoerer and Håkan Engström (Chile—Sweden, 2006)

Devenir Rosa & Hummingbirds

I read the programme of this year’s Ibértigo and decided to watch the two films whose one-line summaries sounded least depressing. I think I made the right choice.

Devenir Rosa

a film by Valeri Hernani

A Peruvian short is a poignant dialogue between generations, that of Valeri and her grandmother Rosa.

Hummingbirds

a film by Silvia del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras

Not much happens in this documentary set in Laredo, Texas (not to be confused with real Laredo), and thank goodness for that. Two teenage friends enjoy “doing nothing together”, they know it’s not gonna last, and it’s beautiful.

Five short films

by Alán González

Screened this Monday in Casa de Colón as a part of the cycle «Miradas audiovisuales. Pensar y comprender América». Presented by the director himself and followed by a colloquium, but I did not stay.

La profesora de inglés (2015)

Written and directed by Alán González. Starring Coralia Veloz, Héctor Echemendía and Roque Moreno.

El hormiguero (2017)

Written and directed by Alán González. Starring Grisell Monzón, Marybel García Garzón, Carlos Peña and Reynier Morales. Watch here.

Los amantes (2019)

Screenplay by Nuri Duarte and Alán González. Directed by Alán González. Starring Lola Amores and Noslén Sánchez.

La muchacha de los pájaros (2021)

Screenplay by Nuri Duarte and Alán González. Directed by Alán González. Starring Arlettis González, Omar Rolando González and Maggie Mateo.

Azul Pandora (2024)

Screenplay by Nuri Duarte. Directed by Alán González. Starring Lady Chiv, Mateo Menéndez, Eduardo Martínez and Yaité Ruiz.

Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World’s Fair at San Francisco & Speedy

The last session of the cycle El resto es silencio by Vértigo.

Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World’s Fair at San Francisco

a film by Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand

I was hoping for another great short from Normand’s vast catalogue but no. Starring both co-directors, this docu-comedy short is pretty much disposable.

Speedy

a film by Ted Wilde

A feel-good slapstick comedy starring Harold Lloyd as Speedy, Ann Christy as Jane Dillon, Bert Woodruff as Pop Dillon and Babe Ruth as himself.Speedy happened to be the final silent film by Lloyd. I have to add that I’ve enjoyed the Carl Davis’ score for this film much more than that for The Kid Brother.

Caught in a Cabaret & The Kid Brother

These films were screened as a part of the cycle El resto es silencio: Normand, Lloyd, Keaton, Chaplin, Fatty y otras sonrisas de antaño by Vértigo.

Caught in a Cabaret

a film by Mabel Normand

Charlie Chaplin’s cinema career began in 1914. Caught in a Cabaret is just one of 36 (!) films featuring Chaplin released that year. Also starring the director, Mabel Normand. Watch for Minta Durfee as a dancer at 20:00.

The Kid Brother

a film by Ted Wilde and J.A. Howe

A classic 1927 comedy starring Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston.

By a strange coincidence, both Mabel Normand and Ted Wilde died at the tender age of 36.

Antoine et Colette

a film by François Truffaut

A few years after the events of Les quatre cents coups, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) falls in love.

Co-starring Marie-France Pisier as Colette, Rosy Varte and François Darbon as her parents, and Patrick Auffay as René.

Magical Caresses

a series of short films by Lori Malépart-Traversy
animation by Keyu Chen and Lori Malépart-Traversy

From the director of Le clitoris comes this charming “animated documentary series based on Caresses Magiques, a book series written and edited by Sarah Gagnon-Piché and Sara Hébert” (I took this quote from the end credits). The “animated documentary series” is really a mini-series, of five animated shorts no longer than 4 minutes each; and the “book series” was just two volumes, now out of print. The first of the films is narrated in English by Ms Malépart-Traversy herself; the other four feauture the voices of, I suppose, some of the book’s heroines (in French, with English subtitles). You can watch all the films on the National Film Board of Canada web site or on Vimeo (scroll down to the embedded videos).

Aitana & Ozogoche

Both documentaries were screened last Thursday in Casa de Colón.

Aitana (2023)

a film by Marina Alberti

Marina Alberti’s directorial debut is a letter of love to her mother, Aitana Alberti León, and grandmother, María Teresa León. Now Aitana starts to show symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, which also affected María Teresa.

Now this was not in the film: according to Spanish Wikipedia, María Teresa León spent her last years of life in a sanatorium in Majadahonda, near Madrid. Her loving husband, Rafael Alberti, never accepted María Teresa’s illness and... escaped to Rome. What a gentlemen! She died alone and forgotten.

Ozogoche (2023)

a film by Joe Houlberg Silva

In a recent interview, the director Joe Houlberg says that it took six years to film Ozogoche. In the beginning it was supposed to be a documentary about strange behaviour of migratory birds, upland sandpipers (Bartramia longicauda), known in Ecuador as cuvivíes. There is no shortage of hypotheses why some of these birds travel some 10,000 kilometers from North America to Ozogoche lagoons only to plummet into the icy waters and die. What happened though, after these years of living with local community, the film creators realised that poor cuvivíes became, in words of Houlberg, “just an allegory of the true story <...>, the story of an indigenous family in the Ecuadorian páramo who are waiting for their relatives, waiting for something to change”. If you liked the magical realism of El Eco, you’ll fall in love with Ozogoche.

Live music and stuff in Las Palmas and Santander, October 2024

This is what I’ve seen in October:

• 1 October: «Bach & Rameau» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  Capilla de Santa Anna featuring Vicent Bru (harpsichord), Yurena Darias (viola da gamba) and Anabel Estévez (Baroque violin). The programme included:
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in G major for violin and basso continuo BWV 1021
  • Jean-Philippe Rameau: Pièces de clavecin en concerts: III concert
    La Lapoplinière
    La timide: 1er Rondeau, 2e Rondeau
    Premier tambourin, Deuxième tambourin en Rondeau
  • Bach: Sonata in G major for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1027
    Adagio
    Allegro ma non tanto
    Andante
    Allegro moderato
  • Rameau: Pièces de clavecin en concerts: V concert
    La Forqueray: Fugue
    La Cupis
    La Marais

  

• 3 October: «Trayectoria del polvo VII» @ Casa África, Calle Alfonso XIII, 5
  The opening performance of the Masdanza 2024 festival. Featuring Nshoma Nkwabi (dance, vocal) and Anahi Acuña (violin, vocal); directed by Aïda Colmenero Dïaz. The programme included projection of four short films from the cycle Ella Poema directed and choreographed by Dïaz: Éxodo, Abismo, El Quitador de Miedos and Cicatriz de Luz.

• 3—31 October: Exposición de Acuarelas @ La Casa de la Cultura, Villa de Moya, Gran Canaria
  Watercolours by la Asociación Canaria de Acuarelistas, with a work by Tamara.

  

Goodbye Las Palmas, hello, Santander!

• 11 October: Luca Filastro Trio @ El Centro Botín, Muelle de Albareda, Santander
  An evening of stride jazz featuring Luca Filastro (piano, vocals), Vincenzo Florio (double bass) and Andrea Nunzi (drums).

  

This year, I managed to see all (four) plays of the XIV Festival de Teatro Amateur organised by Federación de Grupos de Teatro Aficionado de Cantabria (FETEACAN). As in other years, it took place at Paraninfo de Las Llamas de la Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (Avenida de los Castros, 42).

• 19 October: «La Visita»
  A play by Javier García-Mauriño performed by Carpe Diem Teatro (Tomelloso, Ciudad Real); directed by Miguel Ángel Berlanga.

• 20 October: «La Ratonera»
  Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap (with a twist!) performed by Itxartu Antzerki Taldea (Getxo).
• 26 October: «Los locos de Valencia»
  A rather silly farce by Lope de Vega, performed by UGTeatro (Murcia). Directed by David Terol and Mariángeles Rodríguez.

• 27 October: «Pluto. Dios de la riqueza»
  A comedy by Aristophanes, performed by Teatro Kumen (Asturias). Directed by José Ramon López Menéndez.

  

More exhibitions in Santander:

• 11 May — 20 October: «Silvia Bächli: Partitura» @ El Centro Botín, Santander
  Works by Silvia Bächli (1956, Baden, Switzerland).

  

• 5 October 2024 — 9 March 2025: «Shimabuku: Pulpo, cítrico, humano» @ El Centro Botín
  Works by Shimabuku (1969, Kobe, Japan).

  

• 10 October — 7 November: «Colores del mundo» @ Plaza Porticada
  Open-air exhibition of large-format images from the National Geographic archives.

  

• 11 October — 7 December 2024: «De Orallo a Okuda: un diálogo intergeneracional» @ Balta Gallery, Calle Lope de Vega, 29
  Works by Roberto Orallo and Óscar San Miguel aka Okuda.

  

And that was it for October.

Cuaderno de agua & Las Hijas

Two Latin American films screened in Casa de Colón last week.

Cuaderno de agua

a film by Felipe Rodríguez Cerda

The notebook of a political prisoner during the Pinochet dictatorship is found 35 years later by his niece.

Las Hijas

a film by Kattia G. Zúñiga

In this not particularly deep but warm and touching coming-of-age film, two teenage sisters travel from Costa Rica to Panama in search of their absentee father. While the meeting with him proves to be anticlimactic, the girls encounter new friends and love(r)s and discover skating. What more do you want?

39 very short films

Thirty-nine? You must be kidding me. Not ten, not fifteen, but 39 short films selected from, wait for it, 58 submitted to the competition. The competition in question is called Visionaria, but I’m afraid this year’s jury had a very vague idea what “selection” is. Judging from what I’ve seen yesterday, the remaining 19 films (33%) must have been pretty unimpressive. The screening was held in Teatro Guiniguada which was packed — with Rabbit’s friends and relations, I suppose. Short films are not that popular otherwise.

The complete programme is available here — I can’t be bothered to list all films in this post. I liked Femme by Javier González and Still Live by María Sanz Esteve. My favourite, however, and the one I voted for, was Agatha Christie estuvo aquí by Cayetana H. Cuyás which, to my delight, has won the first prize.

All the films are available at YouTube.

Adão, Eva e o fruto proibido & La uruguaya

Two South American films screened in Casa de Colón last week, with a surprise appearance of Ana García Blaya, the director of La uruguaya.

Adão, Eva e o fruto proibido

a film by R.B. Lima

A short starring Danny Barbosa, Lay Gonçalves, Manoa Vitorino, Margarida Santos and William Cabral.

La uruguaya

a film by Ana García Blaya

Lucas Pereyra is a moderately successful writer in his mid-forties, married, with a son, and right in the middle of a stereotypical mid-life crisis. He gets infatuated with a much younger woman, the titular “girl from Uruguay” named Guerra. A series of mildly comic mishaps ensue.

The main problem of this film for me is that I don’t find Lucas “mid is his middle name” either likeable or funny or intriguing — quite unlike his romantic interest. Now I didn’t read novel of the same name by Pedro Mairal on which the film is based. I don’t know whether Pereyra is supposed to be that mediocre. If the answer is yes, Sebastián Arzeno does a splendid job portraying him. Luckily, there is no judging or moralising of any sort in the film; still, I couldn’t care less about Pereyra. Which is a shame. Fiorella Bottaioli shines as Guerra: both down-to-earth and full of mystery.

A Dog’s Life and Pay Day

two films by Charlie Chaplin

Just like four years ago, the closure of Happy Piano Day 2024 in the San Telmo park featured two classic silent movies: A Dog’s Life and Pay Day by the great Charlie Chaplin. Once again, the screening was accompanied by Federico Lechner.

What was different this time is that, at about 21:45, they run out of electricity, or the generator run out of gas and then they run out of electricity. So the lights and projector went off and we missed the last ten or so minutes of Pay Day. The pianist did his best to play the coda, and that was it. I think this added authenticity to the whole show.

Cuerpos vivos & Guián

Two Central American documentaries by women directors, screened yesterday in Casa de Colón.

Cuerpos vivos

a film by Andrea Arauz

An experimental short dealing with gender violence in Honduras.

Guián

a film by Nicole Chi Amén

Nicole is a young Costa Rican of Chinese descent who doesn’t speak Chinese. Her granny Guián, born in China, never learned Spanish. So the two women were never able to communicate in the same language. After the death of Guián, Nicole embarks on a journey to her grandmother’s natal home... An intimate yet universal story. You know, it’s OK to belong neither here nor there.

The title of the film supposedly means “paternal grandmother”. But 奶奶 is pronounced nothing like “guián”: /nǎinai/ 🔊 in Mandarin, /naai naai/ 🔊 in Cantonese. Could it be because Nicole, as she says herself, used to confuse it with 外婆, /ngoi po/ in Cantonese, “maternal grandmother”? Still, does not sound exactly like Guián!

Fifteen short films

I missed them last January, but this Wednesday, just like year before, and all these years before that, I went to Teatro Guiniguada to see the 15 winning shorts of San Rafael en Corto. I have to say that the quality of the films went up — I liked all of them. My favourites were Araceli by Andrea Gutiérrez, El Alquimista by Oscar Santamaría, Patata by Emilio González and SAI^* by Aldo and Celia González.

Proyección del palmarés de la XIX edición de SREC Teatro Guiniguada, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Tuesday, 24 January 2024, 19:30

La Espera by Manel Salgueiro Araceli by Andrea Gutiérrez García Allegro (ma non troppo) by Zhana Yordanova Heroínas by Iris Carballo Déniz Desmadres by María Sanz Esteve El Alquimista by Oscar Santamaría El mejor fruto del huerto by CEIP La Zafra Volver contigo by Iván Umpiérrez Cañada Mar & Flor Amazonas by Elena Gracia, Marta Fuenar & Natalia Martínez La era de Verdugo by Daniel Santana Sosa Patata by Emilio González VIh-VIR by Estella Lola Cedrún Lastra & Ana Rosa González Eco Papa Whisky by Himar Soto Martín SAI by Aldo González & Celia González Fría by David Sanz

*	SAI stands for Sistema de Alimentación Ininterrumpida (uninterruptible power supply).

Tierra & Luchadoras

Both films screened last Thursday in Casa de Colón were filmed in Mexico and released in 2021. Both feature women protagonists; both talk about femicide. So not an easy watch.

Tierra

a film by Gustavo Gamero

This short film is a fiction that strikes you as a true story, thanks to the masterfully understated performance by Ángeles Cruz.

Luchadoras

a film by Paola Calvo and Patrick Jasim

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Maybe not the most dangerous city in the world in terms of homicide (as they claim in the film), but certainly in the top ten. Not a nice place to be a woman. The title of the documentary refers both to the sport its heroines practice — lucha libre — but also their determination to fight for their rights. Starring Baby Star, Little Star, Mini Sirenita, Lady Candy and Miss Kath.