Experiencing Interruptions?

Abandoned Transits

Abandoned Transits is a journey between a body of memories and the body being present. It is both an act of ‘calling out’ to the present and ‘recalling’ the past: a travel in time between where we come from and who we have become in examining how cultural memory lives in geography. It is an exploration of how this cultural memory is translated, dissected, embodied, transformed and empowered by another culturally foreign and directive aesthetic: in this case, as flamenco is turned into the primary language for a film.

Structured around the ideas of mapping, plotting and surveying this geography as a repository of cultural memory, the film takes place in locations that had been overlooked despite considerable damage to the environment or the community, abandoned outright for economic or political reasons, or were an attempt to reverse the “footprint” of misuse. It moves beyond simply commenting on the cultural memory of the geographic location, to expanding that conversation to include who we are, where we come from and how we interact with our space/environment as “foreigners” within this cultural dance form and body of memories.

The original sound score by Jose Luis Rodriguez utilizes old recordings of ‘forgotten’ voices in Spanish folklore, mixes and manipulates them with natural sounds of the individual locations and sounds created by the dancers themselves. The intention is to draw out the hidden narratives in the choreography and thus have the viewer come to his or her own conclusion of what these are. Filmed on location in Huelva, Spain.

All footage was shot in guerrilla-like sessions due to the problematic nature of anything perceived as critique on government practices in urban development.

  • Niurca Marquez
    Director
  • Niurca Marquez
    Writer
    "Alfonsina: La Mujer en El Mar"
  • Nu Flamenco Collaborative, Inc.
    Producer
    "Resonancias"
  • Niurca Marquez
    Key Cast
    "Tattoo", "mujer_cita.mia"
  • Noemi Luz
    Key Cast
  • Adam Newby
    Cameras
  • J. Rodriguez
    Cameras
  • Jose Luis Rodriguez
    Musical Score
    Despacito y a Compas; Finding Compas (in Production)
  • Alexey Taran
    Editor
    Imaginarium; Memorias de una urbe; Interrupta
  • Carla Forte
    Post-production
    Staring at the Ceiling; Memorias de una urbe; Interrupta; Imaginarium
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Memorias de un abandono
  • Project Type:
    Short, Other
  • Genres:
    Dance Film, Dance for the Camera
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 15, 2014
  • Production Budget:
    1,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Spain
  • Language:
    Other
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Screening Dance Miami
    Miami, FL
    January 24, 2015
    North American Premiere
  • UWI Humanities Festival - Dance on Film Series
    Trinidad
    March 28, 2015
    International Premiere
  • Flying Frame Film Festival

    United States
  • Perth Screendance

    Australia
  • Coetani Experimental Flamenco Festival

    Greece
  • Migrations Film Festival - Special Projects (90 day run)
    North Wales
    United Kingdom
Director Biography - Niurca Marquez

Niurca Márquez is an experimental flamenco artist, writer and advocate. She has worked tirelessly on presenting new works that shed light on the female body and its links to notions of beauty and sensations in flamenco within a contemporary framework. She possesses a rare combination of physicality and intellect and a deep understanding of her work’s historical placement and potential implications within a contemporary dance setting. She is part of an international movement addressing extended forms in flamenco and reclaiming the form’s liaisons with political and social discourse. In 2014, she was the Community Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts where she completed an interdisciplinary project that included local history, personal narratives from the community and the town’s natural geography to create a performative installation in a 100 year-old house that challenged audiences to create their own personal performance experience and gave voice to forgotten cultures of the area.

She has collaborated on a number of dance films including "Tattoo" by Lucia Anrantaha and "mujer_cita_mia" by film artist Dinorah de Jesus Rodriguez. "Abandoned Transits" is her directorial debut.

Marquez is also an informed and articulate writer and her current research examines the connections between political propaganda and the development of contemporary flamenco. Her work was recently published by MacFarllan Press in the upcoming Flamenco on the Global Stage: Historical, Critical and Theoretical Perspectives, edited by K. Meira Goldberg, Ninotchka D. Bennahum and Michelle Heffner Hayes.

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