ironymaiden | Paco de Lucía: A Journey

this seems to be my year for choosing high-context documentaries. Paco de Lucía was a Spanish flamenco guitarist. the performance footage in this is great (if you dig flamenco guitar, and i do). unfortunately, i had missed the part in the description about how this was made by his son.* so, it's in Spanish (sure, fine) and it spends an inordinate amount of time showing the guy playing and saying repeatedly that he pissed off traditional flamenco artists. unfortunately, i have no idea what he did that was so revolutionary because i guess i am supposed to know exactly what is and is not traditional flamenco. (i'm a fan of a dude from Toronto, what do i know?) also, there was this footage of him on tv being asked which hand is more important when you play the guitar. and his answer was a big deal...took me a few minutes to realize that this was coded political speech during the Franco dictatorship. (would have loved a discussion of his ability to travel on tour so extensively when the country was so isolated.) there's also an assumption that we know the songs and the bands that he was known for. i am so not the audience for this film. on the other hand, i am listening to him on Rhapsody right now.

*yet oddly, stuff about the family is missing. we see his brother was his singer and then at some point he disappears, never explained. and there seem to be children, including one that is under 10, but there is no mention of a first or second wife or girlfriend.