10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

La Chana (2017 Feature Film)

Lucija Stojevic | Spain, Iceland | 2016 | doc | color/b&w | DCP | 83 min | Spanish | e.s.

She ruled on stage, but at home flamenco phenomenon La Chana was emotionally and physically abused by her husband. The moving documentary La Chana, an audience favorite at IDFA, is an ode to human resilience and to this grande dame of flamenco.

Even though her knees are wrecked and she has to sit and watch from a chair: give flamenco dancer La Chana (69 years old) a rhythm and she’ll dance. She can’t help herself. She was “born to dance,” she says. And “the body follows the soul”. La Chana was a phenomenon in the 1960s and 1970s, world famous for her fast footwork and her emotive dancing. Peter Sellers had her dance in his film The Bobo (1967). While all this went on, she was being belittled and beaten by her husband, she relates. Dance was her outlet.

Not that filmmaker Lucija Stojevic portrays this diva as a victim. The drama only features in the flamenco itself – it’s hard to keep your feet still when watching the astounding archival footage. While La Chana does her make-up ahead of her final show, the documentary shows the natural power of a woman who may have taken some hard knocks, but just won’t give up.

Place: CINEMA 6

Date: 6 April 2017

Time: 14:45

Duration: 1:05

Place: CINEMA 6

Date: 8 April 2017

Time: 20:00

Duration: 1:04

Place: CINEMA 3

Date: 9 April 2017

Time: 14:15

Duration: 1:02

Year in
Festival

2017

Director

Lucija Stojevic

Camera

Samuel Navarrete

Country

Spain
Iceland

Editor

Domi Parra
Irene Coll

Language

Spanish

Length

83 min

Music

Ernesto Briceño

Producer

Lucija Stojevic
Deirdre Towers

Production Company

Noon Films S.L.

Sales

Cat & Docs

Scenario

Lucija Stojevic

Sound Design

Alejandro Castillo

Year of Production

2016

Website

Croatian Lucija STOJEVIC is a true European: she studied architecture at Edinburgh University and attended film school in Prague. She made video essays for The GuardianThe New York Times and GlobalPost. In Barcelona she founded the production company Noon Films in order to create her debut La Chana. The film won the audience prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

 

Filmography

La Chana (2016, doc)