Santos Bacana in Cuba
"I got obsessed with Levantine rationalism after seeing an exhibition David Sardaña and Inigo Lanz that illustrated the geometries and materials of the blocks that were built in the seventies in that area”, he says Santos Bacana , filmmaker and one of the founders of the collective Little Spain , nerve center of a new Spanish movement that emerges in the thriving city of The Angels .
His real name is Alvaro Santos , although it is by his last name that people have known him since he was a child. The rest of his stage name was consolidated into benidorm in the summer of 2016.” I found a building that wasn't on my list -of his planned route along the Levantine coast to investigate his obsession-, the Playmon Bacana. He whistled at me. Its west face is a white latticework with almost streamline semicircular windows, but the side facing the sea is full of glazed terraces with awnings."
Santos Bacana photographed by Taylor Thompson.
"I thought that few things represent me better than this building: sober and elegant on the one hand and tacky and traditional on the other , so I stole his last name”, confesses the also actor, whose current passion is called Little Spain , the most promising project of the film scene with a Spanish stamp in Los Angeles.
Bacana is also responsible for music videos such as the bolero A poison - rolled in the Château Marmont of Los Angeles- and To distribute -in Havana and with a cameo included by Eliades Ochoa, founder of Buena Vista Social Club -, both from Madrid ** C. Tangana **.
Few details are known about this group of Spaniards settled in California , but little by little they are making noise as a referent of the visual underground in USA : “We had fantasized so much about the idea of a little Spain here what the name appeared by itself. After We have been growing, starting... and now we just put the next gear”, he clarifies.
Frame of C. Tangana in 'Un poison', in Los Angeles.
Names like that of the singer Lourdes Hernandez (Russian Red), the cinematographer Arnau Valls (the video Barefoot in the Park, by ** James Blake with Rosalía **, has her participation), the photographer Silvia Grave (responsible for the introductory credits of the series American Horror Story: Apocalypse ), the director Sergio Castella (Nike, Audi, Mango...), the filmmaker Mariano Schoendorf or the director of photography Cristina Trenas (the first woman to compete for the award for Best Photography at the Goya Awards), resonate every time the project comes to light, also consolidating itself as a group of great friends in addition to collaborators of Santos Bacana.
Of course, always with the unconditional company of the writer and stylist María Estrada and the producer María Rubio (“the Maris”), the filmmaker Rogelio González and “Pucho” , as friends call C. Tangana.
“I have been in Los Angeles for five years. Looking at him from a distance, I think the energy he had then and, above all, the absolute ignorance of what it meant to come to live in this city They made me end up here. Perhaps it also had to do with that very bad crisis that there was in Spain ”.
Behind the scenes during the recording of the video for the song 'Para repartir', by C. Tangana in collaboration with Alizzz.
Still, it's Spain the recurring theme that is constantly present in his work. “It is probably due to the romanticization of the past and of the roots, it is a process that I have seen in many people. When I think of Spain I don't think of a country as much as the road that goes to my town, my grandfather's cassettes or the children on the beach in Puerto... You only remember and enhance the beautiful, and I think that affects our own vision of Spain ”.
The most recent short of his friend Roger, titled Saints and starring Bacana, emphasizes it: "I find joy in nostalgia... I dream of Spain for what I left there ”, He says while a succession of images of Flemish Barbies is projected while defining “the aristocracy come down” with a Julio Iglesias cassette, a box of Fontaneda biscuits, postcards from Castilla and flamenco and olé coasters.
Santos Bacana in Los Angeles
A longing that does not mean that his relationship with USA be a conflict of interest, but simply its fusion with American culture it has ended up coupling and complementing the one it brought from birth instead of dominating it.
“At first I wanted to relate more to the American world and I think it was a good idea to park the roots for a while. Then I started meeting people with my same background living in these same circumstances. It is different. A specific empathy is created, you share nostalgia and even recover some old national traditions, such as the gab ”, she tells.
Saints in Los Angeles, by Jorge Gómez.
It may be for this reason that his relationship with C. Tangana arose so smoothly. “We met in Las Vegas during the 2016 Latin Grammys through Roge (Rogelio Gonzalez), director and great friend of both whom I accompanied to shoot a video".
"Since then, the three of us have been sharing ideas and feedback in everything we do. Pucho and I started sending each other music, especially Rumbas, couplets and Cuban song Because we both love them. Although I am a huge fan of its urban aspect, from the beginning and for that reason I associated myself more with his approach to traditional music , which is also why I ended up writing A Poison with him or traveling to Cuba ”, he continues.
They rolled all over Havana (except in Old Havana), from Miramar to East Havana. Almost all the sequences take place in places where architecture is important, such as the Náutico de Marianao, Deportivo José Martí or Casa Alonso.
"A luxury. The best memory was shooting in the America Theater , because all the greats have passed through there, including Sara Montiel and Lola Flores , of whom there is a beautiful painting that crowns the hall. I think in the rest of the world it is impossible to find an art deco building so intact And with so much history.
Santos knows how to get out of tourist stereotypes and, at the same time, make them his own within his vintage world, as the mythical Chateau Marmont hotel or the dancing paradise that is the Floridita restaurant of a poison. Something he achieves by being selfish.
"When I think of Spain I don't think of a country so much as the road that goes to my town, my grandfather's cassettes..."
“Deep down I would like all those pieces to become small memories of me in the future. I want to show an embellished version of the places I have known and of the moments I have fantasized about, ”he says.
He will reflect it also in condominium , his first short, written together with Lourdes Hernandez , in which he also appears.
"It's a cartoon Hollywood of nowadays. the vision of this neighborhood is unreal and disappointing at first , but after a while and several revelations, its essence begins to appear”, he clarifies while acknowledging that THE. It is not an easy city.
“The most interesting thing happens in private places and on the streets you only see cars, the classic ‘papier mache’ and the occasional quirky pedestrian. It changes a lot when you look at the city that was: Broadway theaters, studios like Paramount, mythical spots like Cicada, Sunset Tower or the Eames house ; places where that world continues to breathe. You find places like this every day.
Santos Bacana in Cuba
And what does the future hold for Little Spain inside this chaotic city? “ we want to make movies , like everyone here, but the idea has a place within other universes, such as design or fashion. We are also interested drink beers and get an appetizer or have parties like ours, that end late”. Welcome, Mr. Bacana.
C. Tangana during the filming of 'Para repartir'