Title: Flamencologia
Authors: Seymour, Daniel,; Sensory Overload Productions,
Year: 1970
Subjects: Gastor, Diego del,; Flamenco music; Guitar Methods (Flamenco); Sevillanas.; Musicians Spain.; Romanies Music; Bars (Drinking establishments); Singers Spain.; Flamenco musicians.; Seguidillas (Music); Guitar music (Flamenco); Morón de la Frontera (Spain); Andalusia (Spain)
Abstract: The Spanish Flamenco guitarist Diego Amaya Flores is featured in this documentary filmed in Andalusia by Danny Seymour. The footage captures the flamenco culture of the time, and may represent the only existing motion picture footage of several renowned flamenco artists including, Francisco Molina, Rafael el Gordo and Miguel Funi. Daniel Seymour's fluid camerawork captures the spontaneous nature of flamenco singing and dance, not as staged performance, but in impromptu community gatherings in the town of Moron de la Frontera in southern Spain. Members of the Gypsy community take turns dancing and singing, entertaining one another with their personal variations on well known Flamenco songs. The film concludes with Diego Amaya Flores playing "La Marseillaise" on his guitar, a composition which was illegal in Franco's Spain when this film was made. Diego Amaya Flores, (Diego del Gastor) died three years later, he was known throughout Spain's Flamenco community for his unembellished guitar style. Daniel Seymour's film Flamencologia, ends with this statement: "Esta pelicula fue hecha en homnaje a todos los que conservan el Flamenco en su mas pura expresion viviendolo como es debido. A estos Flamencos nunca se les ha filmado." Which translates as, "This movie was made in homage to all those who preserve Flamenco in its purest expression, living it as one should. These Flamencos have never been filmed." The filmmaker Daniel Seymour lived and worked in New York City in the 1970's and was part of a loose knit community of artists that included Robert Frank, Jessica Lange, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.