The best laid plans of mine and men...

I just spent about a month in Spain.  My plan was to spend 10 days working on Flamenco:  the Land Is Still Fertile (Flamenco:  la tierra está viva) and then, since co-director Antonio de la Malena was scheduled to go on tour in Mexico, I'd spend another three weeks, well, having fun:  a bit of editing, a bit of checking out lead mines (lead mines?  Yes, lead mines), a bit of flamenco dance lessons, a few days in Paris and plenty of just hanging out.

Manuel de Malena with guitarist Malena Hijo

However, Antonio's tour to Mexico was cancelled at the last minute and so I got to - WORK.  The whole time I was there.

And I must say, we did get a lot done.  We filmed the very fine (and famous) flamenco guitarist Diego del Morao playing a solo, and also interviewed him on camera.  We filmed the very fine (and also famous) flamenco singer Manuel de Malena singing a solo, and also interviewed him on camera.  We conducted a second interview of the very important figure, former guitarist Manuel Morao.  We interviewed critic Estela Zatania.  We interviewed Mila Méndez, a nice of the great singer, la Paquera (and Mila sang a little for us in the style of her aunt).  We got some editing done.  I filmed some lead mines near Córdoba, in a small city called Linares.

Diego del Morao getting his microphone attached.

Lots of work!  But in fact, it was a trip well spent - and I did get a few days in Paris at the end.

When I say "we," it's because the contributions of every crew member, plus all the talented people we are filming, are essential to the project.  This includes is our new sound tech, Carlos Pérez, who comes down from Sevilla to work with us;  along with camera operators Eve A. Ma (yours truly) and Roberto Aguilar;  lighting tech Sergio Monja;  and of course our fantastic co-directors Eve A. Ma (again) and Antonio de la Malena.  Plus most of the time we also have a boom operator.

Co-directors and part of crew work out a problem.