Leo Blanco composes original score for the Venezuelan documentary “The Silence of the Flies” The composer and pianist from Merida, Venezuela created the music for the film directed by the researcher Eliezer Arias, a movie that was awarded first place in the Documentary Film Festival of the Dominican Republic. The movie exposes a socio-psychological phenomenon that occurs in a small town in the rural zones of the Venezuelan Andes mountain range. Leo Blanco Press, Amazonia Management Leo Blanco’s music dances in between pain, the splendid scenery of Merida, Venezuela and the emotional depth of two mothers that grieve the loss of their daughters. The music rings among the unraveling story of how Maria Jose and Nancy joined the long list of suicides in the epidemic that has taken over the rural areas of the Venezuelan Andes, since the 90s. The composer’s creations, inspired by Andean landscape photography, describe the stories that the characters narrate in “The Silence of the Flies”, directed by the researcher Eliezer Arias. The film has already received the prize for Best Documentary in the first edition of the Documentary Film Festival of the Dominican Republic. “It puzzled me to discover in that these beautiful lands, of seeming peace and serenity in a community with agricultural prosperity, from which I am also originally from, could exist such an epidemic rate of young suicides. The topic itself offers a challenge for any composer. A significant number of my compositions have been derived from these lands. So, from the beginning, I knew it would be a unique experience of making music; this time it would be about the lands and the people who inhabit them,” said the Venezuelan composer Leo Blanco. The film, which comprises a four year investigation conducted by Arias, was shown to a full house on the evening of March 27, 2014 at the Film Festival of Guadalajara in Mexico and, at the same time, at the Cinelatino Festival of Toulouse in France; all in addition to the film’s premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, the most important of its genre, and its performance as part of the programming at the Spanish Film Festival in Malaga and the International Film Festival of Cartagena de Indias. As the complexity of the elements are presented in the film, Blanco affirms, “the Andean moors inspire serenity, while simultaneously transmitting a sweeping natural force that take me into a state of reflection and contemplation. This movie/documentary exposes a dense psychological and emotional issue while at the same time it displays, through the films cinematography, a thoughtful and intimate landscape. The first element that I knew I had to consider, with as equal importance as the music, was the silence that made the creative process much more delicate. In this work there is a connection between the musical themes of the characters of the film and also with the landscape, which plays an essential part. It is a challenge to deal with the profound theme in The Silence of the Flies, a film that aims to perhaps leave more questions than answers to a shocking reality. Leo Blanco, who is also widely recognized as a pianist, has developed a career as a composer with shown dedication and professionalism. In his renowned piano improvisations coexist his academic music training and his South-American, African, jazz and world music influences. These influences are distinct in his produced albums (Fin del Primer Capítulo, Roots & Effect, Africa Latina and Pianoforte), in his work with other soloists and ensembles and now especially in the emotional narration in The Silence of the Flies.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 19:41:15 +0000
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