Copacabana Papers

Sergio de Loof, my favorite artist and my friend.
With the excuse of learning how to speak English, I managed to survive almost a year in Europe, mainly in the city of London, where I quickly understood the lights and shadows of the so-called First World. I admired how advanced they were in terms of individual freedoms and rights, of spaces where to express themselves without censorship, and where to be oneself.
My interest in avant-garde music, urban tribes, and places for artists beyond the commercial circuits, had manifested itself early in me as well as the desire of working in photography and video recording.
I met for the first time the electronic music scene, the mainstream rock scene, and the “under” culture.
The rhyme of London nights was marked by the LGBT+ community and the rave scene.
Listening to The Velvet Underground records I discovered why Lou Reed was Lou Reed.
I learned a lot more about Andy Warhol and the history of his New York factory of Pop Art through the images that some director named Paul Morrissey threw away. I have always believed in the power of visual communication.
And I imagined how it would be like living in Buenos Aires with that kind of freedom.
Back home, the closest thing to those artistic experiences that I knew were some very small and exclusive places and a name: Sergio de Loof.
A few years later I felt I was about to do it because I was co-directing a short film with the very admired Morrissey himself and also with some friends of mine. It was my first cinematographic experience and I was only in my early 20 years old. It was the first edition of BAFICI, (Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema).
Life had joined me with great director Paul Morrissey, the actor Jens Albinus and director Lars Von Trier ́s technical crew, who were in the headlines with their film DOGMA 95.
That night we decided that it was the last day of the festival and we should enjoy it. We would gather a couple of actors and take the first boat to Uruguay to film on its coast, edit on camera and offer the premiere of the product that very night, back in Buenos Aires in the Closing, showing the short film in the room.
The script, created in a few minutes, was about a man who had recently passed away, and his two daughters who were late for the funeral. A family destroyed by different addictions.
Some people say Art is a Miracle and everything is written in the stars
The possibility of having these working experiences and opportunities being so young distracted me from College and I attended it when I was able, always mingling with going on tours and recording activities. In the blink of an eye, I was producing and directing the broadcasting of Live performances of international artists I admired. I had thousands of movies in my mind but I felt it was not the time to do them.
When I was 22 years old I founded a production house that gave work to many people for more than 15 years. I survived as SME the ups and downs of economic comings and goings in one of the most difficult countries to carry out ventures in the world.
And so I was responsible for numerous music cycles, biographical series, televised recorded concerts, and working for the main networks.
We won many outstanding awards. We carried out innovative content actions for the entire region and broadcast hundreds of gigs and festivals. But I kept putting off my own performing art.
The economic crisis forced me to close the company and I decided that from that moment on, I was not only going to invest my time and ability to please commissioned content, but I will resume my artistic career.
One day I made contact with Sergio De Loof via social networks. He did not know my name or my work, nor was he interested.
With a couple of great tricks, he had obtained a significant sum of money that he decided to spend traveling to the city of Rio de Janeiro to live in the luxurious Copacabana Palace hotel.
I had been staying at this hotel in 2006, when I was only 26 years old, living another dream fulfilled: Having a place in the free Rolling Stones show on Copacabana beach, doing a doc for Hispanic TV.
Immediately I knew there was a story to tell. And that the time for my project with De Loof had arrived, as well as the time to present the first film in society… my “opera prima”.
After a delayed Barcelona Rio flight, I finally managed to talk face to face with Sergio while having breakfast overlooking the Copacabana beach.
There I was, like when I did in that short film with Morrissey.
All by myself, with a couple of cameras, and a movie ahead that I knew he had. A film about him, about me, about his legacy and testament.
The last work with Sergio De Loof alive.