La Chana

About This Project

Genre: Documentary

Length: 55′ and 82′
Director/producer: Lucija Stojevic

Producer: Deirdre Towers
Delegate producer: Noon Films SL
Co-producers: Greta Olafsdottir and Susan Muska for Bless Bless Productions (Iceland/USA)

In Collaboration with: RTVE, TV3, ICEC, IFC
Fiscal Sponsor: New York Women in Film & Television
Completion: 2016

World sales: Cat & Docs

Film website: www.lachanafilm.com

“I was born to dance.  I would lay awake all night long, repeating the rhythms in my head until they became a part of me.” -La Chana

 

Antonia Santiago Amador, known as La Chana, is 67 years old. She is helped onto an empty stage and settles into her chair with difficulty. Then her feet begin to move. With closed eyes, she combines intricate rhythms at an ever-faster pace. Her body and soul finally succumb to the beat. She comes alive.

 

In the 1960s and 1970s La Chana was one of the biggest stars in the flamenco world. The self-taught Gypsy dancer rose to the scene at the height of the Golden Era of flamenco, surprising audiences worldwide with a style that was innovative: rhythmic combinations that were nontraditional and a speed, an expression and a power while dancing that were unprecedented.  Her shows were advertised on larger-than-life sized billboards across Madrid.  Peter Sellers, with whom she features in the film The Bobo (1967) invited her to Hollywood.  But she didn’t go. Instead, at the zenith of her career, she suddenly disappeared from the scene.

 

As we follow the backstage drama leading to La Chana’s final seated performance in 2013, she unravels her turbulent life story and reveals the secret that cut short her promising career: for 18 years she was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of her first husband.

 

La Chana isn’t about regret for a life that could have been but about La Chana’s strength to keep overcoming difficult life circumstances that are. It’s a story about the process and power of creation, about love, friendship and re-invention. La Chana takes us deep into the essence of her passion and reveals a poetic and inspiring story that crystallizes the inevitable clashes between her life’s extremes and contradictions; between the artist on stage and the woman behind the scenes.

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

AWARDS:

Winner IDFA VPRO Audience Award 2016

Nomination Finalist Best European Documentary EFA Awards 2017

Winner Best Documentary Gaudí Awards 2018

Winner Best Documentary FEROZ Awards 2018

Winner Grand Prize ART FIFA Montreal 2019

Winner Audience Award Budapest International Documentary Festival 2018

Winner Audience Award DOKUArt Bjelovar 2018

Winner Best Documentary Cinehorizontes Marseilles 2018

Winner Best Documentary Festival du Cinéma Espagnol du Nantes 2018

Winner SADE Award Dock of the Bay Festival 2018

Winner Audience Award Dock of the Bay Festival 2018

Winner Le Voci dell’Inchiesta Audience Award 2017

Winner Chopin’s Nose Award for Best Documentary on Music & Arts DOCSAG 2017

Special Mention San Francisco Dance Film Festival 2018

Special Mention Cerdanya International Film Festival 2017

Nomination IDFA AWFJ Award for Best Female-Directed Documentary 2016

FESTIVALS:

IDFA 2016

Flamenco Biennale The Netherlands 2017

DocPoint Helsinki 2017

DocPoint Tallinn 2017

Tempo Documentary Film Festival 2017

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2017

Assen International Film Festival Women & Film 2017

Vera Film Festival 2017

Málaga Film Festival 2017

Hot Docs 2017

Dok.Fest Munich 2017

Ambulante 2017

Europe on Screen 2017

Le Voci dell’Inchiesta 2017

Beldocs 2017

DocAviv 2017

Cinédoc Tbilisi 2017

TRT Documentary Days 2017

Films Against Gravity 2017

Amsterdam Spanish Film Festival 2017

Docs Barcelona 2017

Crossing Europe 2017

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2017

AFI Docs 2017

In-Edit Brasil 2017

Maine International Film Festival 2017

New Zealand International Film Festival 2017

Best of Hot Docs Vancouver 2017

Ciclo de Flamenco y Cine Sevilla 2017

Woodstock Film Festival 2017

St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival 2017

Curacao Rotterdam International Film Festival 2017

Fünf Seen Film Festival 2017

Cerdanya Film Festival 2017

See the Sound 2017

Docudok Film Festival 2017

Sole Luna Doc Film Festival 2017

CNEX Taiwan 2017

Moldox 2017

Boston Latino International Film Festival 2017

Docs Barcelona Valparaiso 2017

Reykjavik International Film Festival 2017

Antenna Documentary Film Festival 2017

Danza_MOS Madrid 2017

…among others!

Director/Producer: Lucija Stojevic

Producer: Deirdre Towers

Co-producers (USA): Susan Muska & Greta Olafsdottir (Bless Bless Productions)

Production Coordinator: Sandra Olsina

Documentalist & Assistant Director: Lucia Sances

Associate producer, Expert Advice & Coordination: Beatriz del Pozo

Director of Photography: Samuel Navarrete

Camera: Carlos Villaoslada, Ferran Gassiot, Lucija Stojevic and Xavi Sibecas

Editing: Domi Parra, Irene Coll

Sound Design: Alejandro Castillo

Motion Graphics and Graphic Design: Andrés Bartos

Original Music composed by: Ernesto Briceño

Fiscal Sponsor: New York Women in Film & Television

A big thank you to the following people who made a donation to the documentary:

Avi Astor, Daniel Buckley, Marta López Fernández, Anna Pivovarchuk, Vera Kühn, Maribinty Solé Auguets, Miquel Nacher Palones, Jasmina Car, Marc Hermann, Marie Caroline Mayer, Daniela de Marchi, Luca Volpi, Monica Ceida, Angels Rosinach, Alexander Spalek, Patricia del Pozo, Jennifer Baljko, Galia Saravalli, Audrey & Sylvie Sicot, Lorena Aguilar, Andrea Mendoza & Maria Teresa Centeno, Sergi Barreno & Nuria Baiges, Laura Vinyet, Elisabet Alonso & Laia Salvador, Camille Steyer, Alberto, Mateo & Ana Fiocchi, Belen Bravo, Judith Requena, Tere Porras & Xavier Casasampere, Alex Nieto, Laura Llopart, Anna Xu, Yaiza Alemany, Nuria Ontiveros, Laura Gascó, Nuria Altamirano, Juliette Murekeyisone, Galia Ring, Marta Solano Martín, Yasmin Jilaihawi, Manos como Palomas (Switzerland), Carolina Santos, Arantxa Salarich, Irene Lameiro Mulet, Giuseppe Galante, Anna Palomo, Maria Àngels Rosinach, Carla Pons, Pere Mundet, Luis Garcia-Albert, Susana del Pozo, Josep Verge, Teresa Pérez Cuesta, Jeannette Castro, Leticia Perez Vereas, Alejandro Castillo, Alex de Haro, Sira López, Trini Linares, Bettina Schorr, Alicia Edith Hecht, Marga Carbonell, Irene Mundet, Marta Saleta, Clara de la Flor and Susana Medettete & Flamenco School ‘El Duende’ in Sydney, Australia, Jordi Villarubia, Beatriz del Pozo, Juanjo del Pozo, Maria Nieves, Pere-Mateu Xiberta Gómez, Joy Ngo, Silvia Gallardo, Nick Hall and Guri Scotford

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The film brings us under the skin and into the mind of La Chana, a talented Gypsy flamenco dancer as she returns to the stage to give a final seated performance after a 30-year break. Along the way, La Chana reveals the secret behind her disappearance when she was at the peak of her career.

Category
Completed, Documentary
Tags
documentary, la chana