¡Gracias, Santiago!

¡Gracias, Santiago! is a hypnotic journey into the sights, sounds, colors, movements and culture of Carnaval in Cuba. This 26 minute experimental documentary was filmed on location in Santiago de Cuba.

  • Oryan Peterson-Jones
    Director
  • Andrew Pritchard
    Director
  • Merrick McKinlay
    Crew & Logistics
  • Fidel Alejandro Del Sol Zayas
    Crew & Logistics
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Music Video
  • Genres:
    Music, Dance, Carnival, Cuba, Santiago de Cuba
  • Runtime:
    26 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Cuba
  • Language:
    No Dialogue
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Oryan Peterson-Jones, Andrew Pritchard

About the Directors...
Oryan Peterson-Jones and Andrew Pritchard were long-time Portland residents and musical collaborators (before Peterson-Jones returned to his hometown of Arcata, CA in 2016.) The two friends have spent the last decade recording and performing with the West Coast psych-rock collective, Datura Blues, (now celebrating its 20th anniversary!) and are also the driving force behind BPBS Arts & Media (Beast, Please Be Still), which functions as a grassroots record label, field recordings archive, tour/events promotion street team and music video/short film production crew; Peterson-Jones' and Pritchard's latest adventure under the BPBS Arts & Media umbrella took them to West Africa this last April, where they contributed to an upcoming documentary about traditional music from Senegal.

Peterson-Jones' studies in Ethnomusicology and Pritchard's degree in Film have often provided an enthusiastic vehicle for their shared interests in travel, language, film, and World Music. Their creative relationship wouldn't evolve to include filmmaking, however, until after their first trip to Cuba in 2015. ¡Gracias, Santiago! is the filmmakers' second cinematic exploration of the tiny Caribbean island. In 2017 they released a fifteen minute featurette about Rumba street musicians and Grammy winning Cuban Jazz artists that serves as a preamble to a series of documentaries-currently in post-production-about different aspects of the intersection between Cuban music and culture.

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