Semana Santa and Catholic processions in Jerez de la Frontera (part 1)

Religion, meaning here Catholic Christianity, is a very important part of life in southern Spain including Jerez de la Frontera, where I find myself.  In late February, the Catholic brotherhoods began practicing for the Semana Santa processions.  Semana Santa is a week-long celebration that takes place in the seven days prior to Easter Sunday.  This year, it begins on April 13 (Palm Sunday) and ends on the day before Easter, April 19.

 A paso with the Virgin Mary, church leaders in front.

It is one of the most important celebrations in Jerez de la Frontera and many other cities in Spain.  In Spain, the idea of separation of church and state is not the norm, and not only does the country consider itself (Catholic) Christian, but the government gives a lot of money and many special privileges to the church.

The centerpiece of these processions are the pasos, religious floats weighing several tons, carried on the shoulders of strong young men.  The pasos require between 24 and 40 guys to carry them, and they have to practice and train for weeks beforehand.

There are 35 guys carrying the paso frame here.

At first, they only carry the frame of the float, but gradually, more weight is added until finally, they can carry the completed float with all that is on top:  life-sized wooden figures of Jesus Christ and others, hundreds of pounds of gold and silver leaf, figures of the Virgin Mary wearing very heavy, embroidered velvet, and on one paso, a live, fully grown olive tree.

MORE on Semana Santa in the next post.

Festival de Flamenco de Jerez de la Frontera (Flamenco Festival of Jerez)

This is going to be a tourist story.  I´m back in Jerez and since returning, in spite of best intentions, first I caught a cold and then was overwhelmed by the annual, 2-week Festival de Flamenco de Jerez de la Frontera.  The festival ended on Saturday, March 8, and I ended up taking a class in rhythm/palmas (fun, fun, fun) and in dance (seguiriyas-lots of work but also really great).

Here's the theater where the major festival events were presented.

The rhythm/palmas class was with Luis de la Tota.  Of course I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures, but here´s a photo of Luis that I have from when he was acting in Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  

 Luis de la Tota, palmero extraodinaire.

The dance class was with María del Mar Moreno, and she really wanted us to work.  That´s good.  That´s how you learn.  But I´ll just mention that on the final day of class, when we had gone all the way through the choreography about five times - to say nothing of working on individual sections - and our time was up, a student much younger than me said something like "Man, I´m exhausted.  At least now we can rest."

María heard this and said, "You´re all much younger than I am, and you´re saying you´re tired?  No good.  Let´s go through the choreography again."

And so we did.

Including me, even though I am NOT younger than she is.  But that´s not a problem.  I have lots of energy.

The truth about film festivals

Sometimes I think the fastest way to get rich these days is to start a film festival.

Film festivals in the United States charge money for you to send them your film for review.  If they don't accept your film for their festival, you are still out of pocket.  And they charge anywhere from $30 to $105 per film you send them.

This is big time money.

There are, of course, the longer-standing festivals, and the festivals with such prestige that if you get into one, you're almost certain to get a distribution contract.

Because distribution contracts is what festivals are all about:  having a nice audience at the festival and something prestigious to put in the credits and on the DVD cover is fine, but mainly, you submit to a festival because you want to get a good distribution deal.

Because if you're an independent filmmaker, you made that film because you wanted people to see it, and you hoped somehow to recoup your investment.  Distribution deals is supposed to be the painless way of getting exactly that.

Since with technological advances, making movies has dropped from something that costs millions of dollars to something you can do on a shoestring, everyone and his/her second cousin is doing it.  This means there is room for more and more festivals, including festivals that accept work that, perhaps, really doesn't "deserve" to be seen, meaning that is poorly made, or has nothing to communicate, or something on that order,.

Hence, the charges that festivals know you'll pay.

And just an FYI:  most festivals in Europe do not charge money for you to submit your film for consideration.  Apparently the money thing is an "American" invention.