Interval 31. Gonzalo García-Pelayo and Pedro G. Romero
Nine Sevilles
Free, until full capacity is reached, with prior ticket collection on the Museo Reina Sofía website from 10am on the last working day before the activity. A maximum of 2 per person. Doors open 30 minutes before screenings.
Intervals Intervals is a regular programme which premieres film work that lies beyond the Museo Reina Sofía’s mainstream circuit. This new edition centres on New Sevilles, a feature made by film-maker Gonzalo García-Pelayo (Madrid, 1947) and artist and researcher Pedro G. Romero (Aracena, Huelva, 1964) which was awarded the Prize for Best Film (Ex Aequo) in the New Waves – No Fiction section of the 18th Seville Film Festival and drifts around the Spanish city through history and to the contemporary beat of flamenco.
Nine Sevilles s a psycho-affective walk with nine characters and three companions who interpret themselves and speak of flamenco as an alternative way to live intrinsically joined to the city of Seville. The companions are: Amparo Bengala, a gypsy actress and matriarch from the Habichuela music clan; Javier García-Pelayo, a music producer, Gonzalo García-Pelayo’s brother and an actor in many of his films, and José Luis Ortiz Nuevo, a flamencologist and founder of the Flamenco Biennial of Seville. The walkers are: Javiera de la Fuente, a Chilean-born flamenco dancer; Yinka Esi Graves, a Ugandan-English flamenco dancer; Pastora Filigrana, a renowned lawyer and gypsy feminist activist; Gonzalo García-Pelayo, the film-maker playing himself; José Jiménez “Bobote”, a gypsy musician from the Sevilla slum Las tres mil viviendas; Vanesa Lérida Montoya, a non-binary gypsy bullfighter; Rocío Montero, a gypsy matriarch from the El Vacie (Seville) shanty town who is known for her role in the version of The House of Bernarda Alba by Atalaya TNT: the International Centre of Theatre Research; David Pielfort, a poet, and finally, Rudolph Rostas “Janek”, a Hungarian gypsy, street trader and specialist in northern European Romany traditions.
As a whole, these subjects all define a polyphony with geographical, temporary and spatial ramifications which are not only distanced from essentialist folklore, but also reveal why flamenco is a critical, marginal and subordinate art that flows out towards life. Among the walks we encounter bursts of music and choreography by artists such as Israel Galván, Rocío Márquez, Tomás de Perrate and Rosalía, among numerous others, in addition to a dialogue between both directors: the legendary figure of Spanish counter-culture Gonzalo García-Pelayo, whose feature Vivir en Sevilla (Living in Seville, 1978) is a clear precursor to this film, and the encyclopaedic artist and researcher Pedro G. Romero. There is also a tension that shapes the entire film and deliberately puts forward unresolved contradictions. Nine Sevilles could be defined as a fictional documentary, an anthropological-musical essay, expanded theatre and a film choir, yet, as Romero tells us, more than anything it is “a flamenco film, not because flamenco musicians feature but because it’s a way of making purely flamenco cinema”.
Participants
Pedro G. Romero (Aracena, Huelva, 1964) is an artist, researcher, curator and editor. Since the late 1990s his practice has centred on two major instruments: Archivo F. X., a heterodox repository on iconoclasm, and Máquina P.H., through which he propels the Independent Platform of Modern and Contemporary Flamenco Studies (PIE.FMC). Romero analyses historical events, life and the circulation of images which have represented and narrated key events in Spain’s history during the 20th century, and in so doing draws on a sizeable archive of knowledge, disciplines and situations which bring together sacramental iconography, the iconoclastic expression of early avant-garde art movements in the 20th century, flamenco, the concepts and imaginaries of popular cultures, the economy, cultural policies and forms of urban speculation, among others. Moreover, he is the subject of the Museo Reina Sofía’s retrospective Versifying Machines (3 de noviembre, 2021 – 28 de marzo, 2022).
Programme
Thursday, 11 November – 5pm
Gonzalo García-Pelayo and Pedro G. Romero. Nine Sevilles
—Presentation and talk with Pedro G. Romero
Saturday, 13 November – 5pm
Gonzalo García-Pelayo y Pedro G. Romero. Nine Sevilles
—Presentation and talk with Gonzalo García Pelayo
Credits
- Nine Sevilles
- Spain, 2020, colour, original version in Spanish, DA, 157’
- Direction:
- Gonzalo García-Pelayo and Pedro G. Romero
- Script:
- Pedro G. Romero
- Cast:
- Javiera de la Fuente, Yinka Esi Graves, Pastora Filigrana, Gonzalo García-Pelayo, José Jiménez “Bobote”, Vanesa Lérida Montoya, Rocío Montero, David Pielfort and Rudolph Rostas “Janek”
- With the special participation of:
- Amparo Bengala, Javier García-Pelayo and José Luis Ortiz Nuevo
- Music performances:
- Israel Galván, Alfredo Lagos, Rocío Márquez y Fahmi Alqhai con Rami Alqhai y Agustín Diassera, Inés Bacán, Leonor Leal y Antonio Moreno, Raúl Cantizano, Tomás de Perrate y Proyecto Lorca (Juan Jiménez y Antonio Moreno), Niño de Elche con Susana Hernández y Raúl Cantizano, Rocío Molina y Sílvia Pérez Cruz con Eduardo Trassierra, Carlos Montfort, José Manuel Ramos “El Oruco” y Carlos Gárate, Rosalía con José Acedo, Los Mellis, Anna Colom and Claudia “La Chispa”
- Director of photography:
- Juan Manuel Carmona Batán
- Editing:
- Sergi Dies
- Sound design:
- Roberto Fernández and Eva de la Fuente
- Producers:
- Roberto Butragueño, Nathalie Trafford and Joaquín Vázquez
- Produced by:
- Elamedia Estudios, Hellish Producciones, BNV Producciones and Magnética Cine
- Associate producers:
- Amaranta Ariño, Filiep Tacq, Mariano Delís, Abraham Lacalle and María Barroso