EL HUASO Y LA BANDERA -DOC ACTIVITY

This documentary activity develops the Performative mode.  I obviously got some inspiration from the short film a “Study of Choreography in Cinema” (1945), with that said, El Huaso y la Bandera (The cowboy and the flag) intend to show through dance the sentiment of patriotism.

In the book Nichols presents the performative mode as a mean of showing something or embodied a experience. Instead of telling or informing about determined topic, the director would show trough his subjects. It is the case of the War Game instead of informing the people in London about how terrible would be to have a nuclear bomb. The director show through actors, or sets that illustrate or recreate how the consequences would be. Even though it might be subjective, the fact of showing can be as powerful as receiving only the information of such a catastrophe via pamphlet or through a book.

I selected a subject that I’m familiar with, and I place it in different settings. Also I wanted to express the patriotism of the Chilean cowboy. Although is less clear than the War Game, it has many elements that can serve the audience as clues about how this dances is showing patriotism.  I chose patriotism because this is a more emotional thing, rather than rational.  This short documentary expresses how much respect this Chilean cowboy (huaso) has for the flag or for his country. He is dressed with an especial outfit, and dances something that is very unique. Furthermore, the music helps to recreate the singularity of the dance and the traditions that this man has. 

The subjectivity on this work is that for some people it would be only a dance, but for others it would bring strong feeling appealing to a more “visceral feeling” about how important are the traditions in this country. In conclusion, this rough edited documentary expects his audience to feel and experience something that could be familiar or completely foreign.

EL HUASO Y LA BANDERA CHILENA   (watch the first 2 minutes and 5 sec)

 (The 2 minutes version) El HUASO Y LA BANDERA