The New York Times review of La Chana’s last performance in 1990 at the Joyce Theater with the Cumbre Flamenca, stated: "surely the most extraordinary of those solos was ''The Passion That Creates,'' performed by La Chana, who gave the illusion that she was as much a sorceress as a dancer. She rushed onstage with desperate urgency. Slashing at the air with her arms, she could have been a woman possessed by spirits. When her feet moved quickly, they appeared to quake and tremble. But never was there any loss of control in this outburst. Rather, her heel work produced dry rattling noises and led to an amazing sequence of trills in which the sounds of her feet against the floor built in a tremendous crescendo, only to dwindle away to exist on the edge of a silence that La Chana made as awesome as her storms."
La Chana will be performing after the screening of the 2016 documentary LA CHANA directed by Lucija Stojevic, who has won four Audience Awards: at its World Premiere at IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), beating 300 films,, (il premio del pubblico) in its Italian premiere at le Voci Dell’Inchiesta,. Winner IDFA VPRO Audience Award 2016; Dock of the Bay Festival 2018 in San Sebastian, Spain, and Budapest International Documentary Festival 2018. It was nominated as one of five documentaries for the European Film Awards 2017. It won: Best Documentary Gaudí Awards 2018 (Catalan “Oscars”); Best Documentary FEROZ Awards 2018 (Spanish Critics Choice Award); SADE Award Dock of the Bay Festival 2018.
Having been an official selection in 45 film festivals in 5 continents, LA CHANA was nominated last fall for the IDFA Alliance of Women Film Journalists’ EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Documentary. LA CHANA won Chopin's Nose award for best documentary on arts & music at Docs Against Gravity Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland, with the citation: “For the powerful and captivating image of an artist and a person, which shows the determination and strength of personality. For a captivating and inspirational story which proves that there are no limits for a true passion.”
With depth, humor and pathos, LA CHANA celebrates the charisma and flair of a self-taught Gypsy flamenco dancer who in the 1960s-80s rose to international stardom and then suddenly vanished from the public eye at the height of her career. Peter Sellers saw her dance as a young woman and asked her to perform in the film 'The Bobo' in 1967. Hollywood beckoned, but that was not to be. In her baroque boudoir in Barcelona, LA CHANA continues to practice her art and reveals the reason her career came to such an abrupt end. Filled with footage of spectacular flamenco dance and music, this film brings us under the skin and into the irrepressible spirit of this eccentric woman with an uncanny gift for rhythm who, despite all odds, enjoys a comeback in her late sixties.
Watch LA CHANA teaser.
Lucija Stojevic was educated in The University of Edinburgh (Architectural Design) and Prague Film School (Directing and Editing). She has independently produced over 30 short format documentaries for The Guardian, The New York Times and Global Post. Her work has also been displayed in the context of video art in exhibitions in Vienna and Graz (Austria), Screens of Barcelona/LOOP (Spain) and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival (UK). In 2014, she established Noon Films S.L. a production company focusing on creative documentaries in Barcelona, Spain.
