Salida Del Sol Festival

When a group of people decide to come together for a cause, the reasons for doing so are often not as obvious as one might think.

At the newly established Salida del Sol Festival in Malaga, Spain; we had musicians, organisers, and artists whose love of music germinated in a multitude of different ways.  Each with a varied past that shaped their relationship with the world, and informed the way in which they worked.  

The stories I heard in making this documentary were not necessarily the ones I'd expected, and so the resulting film became more a portrait of the people amongst the backdrop of a festival, rather than the other way round.

We had seasoned musicians who wished to create music near a beckoning Spanish beach; a thriving retiree having had the mantle of conductor thrusted upon them; a Frenchman whose love of music was sparked by hearing Mozart Quintets on vinyl as a boy; and a fundraiser for a Cancer Foundation wishing to give back to an organisation that once helped his terminally ill sister.  

The more I collaborate with creatives, whether they’re actors/actresses, visual artists or musicians, the more I find myself coming back to the same conclusion. That none of it means anything without the lives lived to tease them into existence.  They’re not things that are in and of themselves, but markers of the people who do what they do, the symptoms that appear when we tap into the thoughts and feelings that make us human.