Cancasete, a portrait of Cans

Building a portrait. Like painting a face, sketching a landscape or depicting a place. This was the aim of our last documentary work, named Cancaste.

Cancasete is a multidisciplinary project, a participatory and playful project integrated in the Festival de Cans, one of the most transgressor and authentic cultural events. Our purpose was simple: to depict the memories of the villagers starting from the tape music they kept at their homes. To do so, we used a Tumbler, a documentary shortfilm and a (casette) DJ performance

To do the field work, we counted on a neighbour, Javi Campo, that guided us from one home to another searching the treasures hidden in the garrets, the cookie jars or on the brick a brack. And from those material treasures came out those inmaterial: the stories that gradually remembered our characters, Fernando, Javier, Suso, Giráldez, Merchi, Rafa, Paz and Marisol.

Stories that talked about how the emigration turned to be the vehicle through which the tape music players arrived to this village from Pontevedra. Stories of a forbidden language. Stories of love and also stories of friendship, like the one that led the members of the posse “Os do Viño” (the wine-ones) to register their pub-singing, finding them, and listening to them 20 years later. And of course, the first steps of piratery, with the tape music homemade recording that was, obviously, killing music.

Andres do Barro, Os Tamara, Ennio Morricone, Sabela, Camilo Sesto, Aerolíneas Federales… Cancasete speaks to us about the popularization of music. About the love for music and for the good moments. Like those created by “Os Catro Ventos”, a forming pipe band that 30 years ago went over the whole region playing music in every party, every celebration, and that we found by chance in the house of their founder daughter. But this is quite a long story, so we’ll leave it until the next doc.