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)

Free live music and stuff in Santander and Las Palmas, December 2024

These are things that I’ve seen in the last month of 2024.

• 1 December: Namina @ El Almacén de Little Bobby, Calle del Sol, 20, Santander
  Natàlia Miró do Nascimento (vocals, guitar) and Pep Gol (trumpet, melodica, seashell, percussion) presented an eclectic programme of both originals, mostly from Namina’s latest album La nuit, and covers of songs like I’m Your Man by Leonard Cohen, Chove Chuva by Jorge Ben, Sympathique by Pink Martini and Chocolate Jesus by Tom Waits.

  

• 1 December: Jazz Jam @ Rvbicón, Calle del Sol, 4
  Later the same evening, I was able to enjoy one hour and a half of a jam. Featuring the base band of Beltrán del Álamo (bass), Adrián Buenaga (tenor sax), Carlos Pizarro (guitar) and Raúl Quintana (drums), plus guests.
• 8 December: Diego Jascalevich @ Rvbicón
  An evening of folk and folk-inspired music by a virtuoso charango player, composer and singer.

  

• 12 December 2024 — 31 January 2025: «Una tirada de dados» @ Centro de Arte Naves de Gamazo, Avenida de Severiano Ballesteros, 3
  Works by Chema Madoz.

  

Back in Las Palmas, more exhibitions:

• 21 November 2024 — 3 January 2025: «Hilando Memorias» @ Centro de Artes Plásticas (CAP), Calle Colón, 8, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  Works by Gema Sánchez Yánez; guided tour on 23 December.

  

• 12 December 2024 — 31 January 2025: «Nautas» @ Centro Cultural CICCA, Alameda de Colon, 1
  Works by Miguel Panadero.

  

And that was it for December. Happy New Year!

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.

Dispararon al pianista

a film by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

From the creators of Chico & Rita, this animated almost-documentary follows the trail of hitherto unknown to me Brazilian jazz pianist Tenório Jr. who mysteriously disappeared in 1976.

I found They Shot the Piano Player uneven, often repetitive and at times frustrating. In addition, the version I saw in Los Ángeles was dubbed. Although the film is Spanish, its original soundtrack is mostly not. So when they say “starring Jeff Goldblum” and “interviews with Gilberto Gil, João Gilberto, Vinicius de Moraes, Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso” etc. etc. and after that you don’t hear their voices, you’re bound to be disappointed.

On a more positive note, I’ve discovered a new name. And the music is great throughout.

Alanis

a film by Anahí Berneri

Alanis is a story of a few days from life of María aka Alanis (Sofía Gala), a single mother and a prostitute. A story refreshingly told without glamourising her profession or portraying her as a victim or judging her. I’m sure, it’s deemed to be labelled “controversial” — society is more at ease with women cleaning toilets than being sex workers. María is neither looking for a prince charming nor going to “change her ways”. Magnificent work; shame that you most likely won’t see it.

Ella o yo

a film by Bernarda Pagés

This week’s homework in Advanced Spanish Language and Culture course is based on this charming Argentinian short. No subtitles there, so I had to watch it a few times to be able to answer all the questions, and still I can’t say that I did catch everything. The closing theme is Sur o no sur by Kevin Johansen.

El Gaucho

by Müller and Makaroff

From Christoph H. Müller and Eduardo Makaroff of Gotan Project fame comes something very different: the music from and inspired by El Gaucho, a film by Andrés Jarach. Tango electrónico it isn’t.

It’s all about nostalgia, of course, and nostalgia rarely comes in better packaging, in every sense of the word. The cardboard CD sleeve even has a pop-up model of a corral, the gaucho and a horse. How cool is that? As for the bonus multimedia material, one of my PCs can play it and another can’t, and in any case there’s nothing that isn’t on El Gaucho website. Check out the Gaucho Glossary, if you want to know what the words (and song titles) el piche, jinete and payador mean.

The opening song, Andrés Retamal, is a zamba featuring vocals of Daniel Melingo and Mavi Díaz and musical hand-saw by Rodrigo Guerra.

La mujer sin cabeza

a film by Lucrecia Martel

I don’t really know what to make of this film. Here’s the plot: driving along the country road, Verónica (María Onetto) gets distracted and hits a dog. Or at least as much we are shown. Also, she bangs her head. By some reason, she becomes convinced that she has killed a person. Days later, she says that to her husband. A week or two after, can’t say more precisely, all traces of the possible accident (e.g. the record of her visit to the hospital where she has her head examined) are erased. The end.

Much like some of Antonioni’s films, it is beautifully shot but leaves you frustrated. Unlike the very same Antonioni’s films, The Headless Woman is not the one I want to watch again.

Tango Fire

I went to see Tango Fire at the Corn Exchange. (The video on the company’s website does not do them any justice; good thing I did not see it before the show.) There’s no plot as such: it is all about tango. And tango is all about love and loss. The first half is staged as Café del Tango — where the band is playing and the couples, as one could expect, dance, without much interruption except for a comical (if stereotypical) macho pseudo-punch-up scene. The part two was more like showcase for both dancers and musicians (who played three tangos on their own). I preferred the more relaxed and social atmosphere of the Café to the ballroom/ballet/acrobatics of the second half, where the dancers appear to take themselves far too seriously. I wish there was less virtuosity and more spontaneity.

Even so, the encore was a beauty. The band started to play La cumparsita (what else), then the dancers came back to the scene. Then one of the dancers — I think it was Yanina Fajar, who is also the choreographer of the show — invited the bandoneon player, Hugo Satorre, for a dance. He was hesitating; it looked like he never danced tango before. After a few steps, he retreated back to his bandoneon. OK, maybe they do it every performance and this is just a part of the show, but it was so touching and erotic and as spontaneous as Argentine tango should be.