Director: Tom Haines
Producer: Ilduara Lamas & Tom Haines
Exec Producer: Tamasin Glasson & James Studholme
Original Soundtrack: UNKLE
DOP: Steve Annis
Sound Recordist: Andy Paddon
Editor: Julian Eguiguren
Sound Design: Sven Taits
Colourist: Ben Rogers
Camera Assistant: Alvaro Gonzalez
Runner: Miguel Costa

Luminarias is a short visual documentary that mixes powerful images captured during the two day “Luminarias” fiesta in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain, with a rich soundtrack comprised of an original UNKLE score, location sounds and a reading of the Rafael Alberti poem “Galope”.

Using grainy 16mm film, Luminarias portrays the drama, confusion and traditions of the event in a painterly way, while the multi-layered collage of sound design and music and text render the drama of the fiesta. The festival takes place every January and involves “cleansing” horses and their riders as they pass through burning pine brush. Horsemen and women of all ages from infants to octogenarians take part in the purification and despite the dramatic, sometimes scary images Haines has captured here, accentuated by slow-motion photography, there is an overwhelming sense of pride, respect and care that the villagers have towards their animals, as one rider said “Luminarias is something from another world, for me a horse is a King, I understand and love horses”.

Galope by Rafael Alberti

Las tierras, las tierras, las tierras de España,
las grandes, las solas, desiertas llanuras.
Galopa, caballo cuatralbo,
jinete del pueblo,
al sol y a la luna.

¡A galopar,
a galopar,
hasta enterrarlos en el mar!

A corazón suenan, resuenan, resuenan
las tierras de España, en las herraduras.
Galopa, jinete del pueblo,
caballo cuatralbo,
caballo de espuma.

¡A galopar,
a galopar,
hasta enterrarlos en el mar!

Nadie, nadie, nadie, que enfrente no hay nadie;
que es nadie la muerte si va en tu montura.
Galopa, caballo cuatralbo,
jinete del pueblo,
que la tierra es tuya.

¡A galopar,
a galopar,
hasta enterrarlos en el mar!

Translation

Land, Land, Land of Spain,
The large, the lonely, the bleak plains,
Galloping, white-footed horse,
Cavalier of the people,
under the sun and the moon.

Galloping!
Galloping,
until they are buried in the sea

As a heart it sounds, resounds, resounds
the land of Spain, in its horseshoes.
Galloping, cavalier of the people
white-footed horse,
Horse of the surf.

Galloping!
galloping
until they are buried in the the sea

Nobody, nobody, nobody, there is nobody ahead;
death is nobody if it rides on your saddle
Galloping, white-footed horse,
Cavalier of the people
the land is yours.

Galloping!
galloping
until they are buried in the the sea!

© TOM HAINES 2012