Latido Films Acquires Isaki Lacuesta's 'Flamenco Sketches'

Madrid-based sales agent Latido Films has acquired the international rights to Isaki Lacuesta's documentary 'Flamenco Sketches.' The film is set to close the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section at this week's San Sebastian Film Festival. Lacuesta is a two-time winner of the festival's top Golden Shell award.

Latido president Antonio Saura praised the director in a statement to Variety. "Isaki Lacuesta is without any doubt one of Spain's most creative and innovative directors," Saura said. "With 'Flamenco Sketches' he takes us on an unrivalled road of discovery of art, perception and joy."

A Freewheeling Flamenco History

The film is not a conventional historical documentary. Instead, it uses a vast array of archive footage to take an intuitive journey through flamenco's past. Stories begin, mutate, and disappear in a structure that mirrors the art form itself. The project has been in development for several years.

In a 2024 interview with Variety, Lacuesta described his approach. He called the film a kind of 'One Thousand and One Nights,' a story that explains tales, tales of flamenco. The director connected disparate historical figures through the art. What do Edison, Hitler, Leni Riefenstahl, Tarantino and Camarón de la Isla all have in common? he said. They all have stories that have to do with flamenco.

From Edison to the Avant-Garde

The documentary's timeline is expansive. It jumps from flamenco's first documented appearances in the mid-19th century to the arrival of trains and standardized time.

The film features figures like Vicente Escudero, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Joan Miró, and Marcel Duchamp. It also explores a central paradox: what happens when a spontaneous, living art form is recorded and preserved. Lacuesta and his co-writers probe how flamenco survives through mutation and contradiction, even as people try to define its "real" essence.

Voices and Production

A diverse cast of voices contributes to the film's mix. Participants come from flamenco and broader arts circles. They include rapper C. Tangana, dancer Rocío Molina, artist and co-writer Pedro G. Romero, and French philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman.

'Flamenco Sketches' is produced by Tono Folguera for Lastor Media and Guillermo Cascante for Goroka Contents. Lacuesta's own La Termita Films co-produces. BTeam Pictures will distribute the film in Spain, while Latido Films handles worldwide sales outside the country. The film's title is a nod to Miles Davis's jazz composition 'Flamenco Sketches,' embracing a similar spirit of improvisational contradiction.