Jaleos - Flamenco Sketches

From the very unexpected opening, it is clear that Flamenco Sketches is just as challenging as flamenco itself. Freely associating, the film grows into a broad exploration of the way in which this Spanish dance and music style is connected to historical and artistic developments. The accompanying voice-over voices not only tell of the history of flamenco, but also navigate between amazement and speculation. In doing so, they are inspired by a rich montage of archive material full of intriguing details, from one of Edison's very first kinetoscope films featuring the dancer Carmencita, to an ironic fragment with Hillary Clinton. Important is the connection with modernity, with machines and avant-garde art. Names such as those of Arp, Miró, Chaplin, Saura, Dalí and numerous others pass by. There is eroticism, censorship, and through the Spanish Civil War and colonialism, politics also plays a role – without doing an injustice to the emotion and melancholy. Flamenco as a living element in time.