José Dámaso. Un pintor tras la cámara.

Abstract

The films created in the 70’s and 80’s by Jose Dámaso, born in Agaete in 1934, weren’t really an isolated creative adventure, totally disconnected from his work in other art fields. Filming movies was one of Damaso’s inner desires, long time seek by the painter. Damaso wanted to create an all-embracing artwork and thought that cinema would be the perfect medium to achieve this creative goal. This expressive need push him to film a movie trilogy –La Umbría (1975), Réquiem para un absurdo (1980) and La Rama (1987)– were the history and people of his native place –Agaete, a small village in the northwest of Grand Canary– were the main characters. Despise being filmed in 16mm and had a limited distribution, the special interest of Damaso’s cinema is its singularity and the way it worked jointly with the rest of his artistic work.