MIAMI.- The award-winning Colombian artist Carlos Vives premieres on April 3 documentary film Return to Escalona, a piece that addresses how the performer seeks inspiration from the composer of vallenato Rafael Escalona, one of the most important of the genre.
The film was produced by Mestiza Films, distributed by the Colombian network Caracol Televisión and screened internationally through the streaming service. streaming ViX.
The production hits the screens 30 years after the musician starred in the series Escalona and released his iconic album Classics of the Province.
“Return to Escalona Maybe it was like the way I found to be able to capture an era, a time, a very special place for my life, for music and especially for what is known as the vallenato legend,” commented Vives during an interview he gave to Billboard Espaol.
From that trip that the interpreter made, his album was born. Escalona had never been recorded like thiswhich won the Latin Grammy for best cumbia/vallenato album.
“It’s that way that I found that maybe time doesn’t go away, that I’m trapped in that tape, because also things happened that people are going to discover, they’re going to live them, they’re going to see them, which were very profound.” And I don’t think time will allow us to live them again, he added.
The documentary
The film shows how Vives, together with the accordion player Egidio Cuadrado, embark on a trip to Valledupar, the world capital of vallenato in the Province of Padilla, Colombia.
“A part of the documentary that I find impressive is where Egidio’s sister, Dina Luz, who was Escalona’s partner, appears,” highlighted Vives, who wanted Cuadrado to participate in the project because in recent months his health has deteriorated.
The tour is done in a Ford F150 that belonged to the composer Rafael Escalona, which was preserved by his son and lent to him for the production.
“It was like trying to go against his illness. It was like denying everything and going as if nothing was happening to a recording studio to make this record, and then traveling with him around the region in that van. () Being able to throw away back and remember when I was riding a bicycle with him on that road that linked all those towns in the Province of Padilla, how to be young again with him there, return to those places.
Carlos Vives’ intention is that both Colombians and vallenato fans can learn important information about the genre, as well as the places from which some of the most notable figures of the genre have emerged.
Although the documentary was released on Colombian television on May 1, 2023, and presented in the United States during the Colombian Film Festival NY; Now it can be seen from April 3 on the ViX platform.
