Lady Filmmakers Film Festival - Flamenco: The Enduring Art of Inesita
Using old footage and photos we travel through time with Inesita as she shares about her distinctive performance career of eight decades as a flamenco dancer.
Interview with Director/Producer Tina Love
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I have been making portrait documentaries for years as part of a Santa Barbara based arts/culture series “Portraits of the Central Coast.” And as a flamenco dancer, I have been performing in Inesita’s stage shows since 2012, for which I am very grateful. I love to feature flamenco in my film work and I wanted to pay tribute to Inesita. After at least a year of considering my proposal, Inesita finally decided to let me interview her.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Inesita’s longevity and continual growth as a flamenco dancer of many decades is inspiring. It is an example of an enduring commitment to an art form. It is a difficult career choice to be a Spanish dancer, but she succeeded in making a lifelong career of it. She toured the world working as flamenco dancer, which led to her being featured in movies as a flamenco dancer.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Learning to master an art form or a set of skills is an ongoing quest. Many desire achievement but lack the commitment that it takes. Inesita could have retired a long time ago! But she prefers to keep getting better. She told me that her doctor said dance keeps her alive. I do not doubt this. Inesita also discusses a unique aspect regarding the art of flamenco, as one embodying the seasons and rhythms of life itself. I had never heard this before she explained this to me.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I structured the documentary around the questions I asked her. I had read some of her blogs and so this informed some of my questions. Along with biographical information about her work, I felt it important that she share her knowledge regarding the art form without getting so technical that we lose people. As a flamenco dancer myself, I feel it important to educate others some about the art form. In 2010 UNESCO declared flamenco an 'Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity'.
As a filmmaker, I chose to also highlight her employment as a Spanish dancer in movies.
There are no recordings from her stage performances in the late 40s 50s 60s 70s. However, because she was featured in some movies, at least there is some footage from the earlier part of her career. And no doubt, it intrigued me that Martin Scorsese was the cameraman/editor of a lost film that featured Inesita, while he was an NYU student in 1962. His classmate Robert Siegel was the director. The title was “Inesita: The Art of Flamenco.” I riffed off that title for my title, as I wanted to allude to the lost short film of Inesita. Since Inesita had discovered a work print from that 1962 shoot in her home, I incorporated clips from that.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I haven’t showed it too much.
Sept. 30th at 12:15 is its world premiere at Lady Filmmakers.
People who have seen it have told me they enjoyed it.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Not really. I guess we shall see. I am really looking forward to seeing how audiences receive this and what they take from it.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Well it is always nice if one can find more outlets for people to learn about your film and to screen it places! Come see the film at Lady Filmmakers Sat. Sept. 30th at 12:15.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
I would love this to be on TV as part of a biography series about interesting people.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Maybe it’ll inspire people to go check out a flamenco show if they never have before! Flamenco is ever growing as a global passion. There is flamenco everywhere now.
What’s the difference between flamenco dancing and flamingo dancing?
Just kidding! But just to set the record straight. A FlaminGO is a big pink bird, and well they have nothing to do with FLamenCO.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I am looking for funding to make my feature film “The Red Shoes”. It’s about a pastor’s wife who, thanks to the ghost of her gypsy grandmother, can’t resist resurrecting her flamenco dance career to the ire of her husband and shock of her parish. The screenplay was an official finalist in some screenplay competitions. I am also currently shooting/editing a short documentary “The Romancing & Reaping of Riven Rock.”
The script is framed around JUDGE DEHY coming to Riven Rock estate in Montecito in 1929 to meet the "millionaire mental incompetent" STANLEY MCCORMICK. After meeting with Stanley, he makes his final ruling in a high profile case The New York Times declares "The Largest Custody Case in the History of the Courts.” I’d like to pitch a TV series around the material we researched. I’d also like to pitch a dramatic TV series about Galileo. I have written a pilot draft entitled “Galileo: Hailstorm.” It would be nice to get hired to write! I did a lot of research on Galileo and would love to get back to that as a paid gig.
Interview: September 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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FLAMENCO: THE ENDURING ART OF INESITA
Using old footage and photos we travel through time with Inesita as she shares about her distinctive performance career of 8 decades as a flamenco dancer.
Length: 18 minutes
Director: Tina Love
Producers: Tina Love and David Bradstreet
About the writer, director and producer:
Writer/director/editor
Tina has written, directed, edited numerous festival award winning films. Tina is a flamenco dancer as well. She attended Brooks Institute’s Film School.
Producer: David has produced, written and researched programming for History, A&E and SPEED. He started in feature film development and has film degrees from UCSB and AFI.
Key cast: Flamenco dancer, Inesita
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists): Would like some finishing funds.
Where can I see it in the next month?
Lady Filmmaker Film Festival, Sat Sept. 30th 12:15