Silvia García Herráez |
Madrid (EFE).- Coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the death of Ana Isabel García, popularly known as Gata Cattana, the filmmakers Juanma Sayalonga and David Sainz premiere today the documentary “Eterna”, focused on the life and work of the Cordovan rapper who “He marked a generation.”
“We wanted to shoot a film that showed a complete image of the artist, of what is visible and known, and also of her personal life; of that mark that she has left, not only on an artistic level but also on a human level ”, the people in charge of her explain to EFE.
Sayalonga and Cattana (Adamuz, Córdoba, 1991) knew each other from the time the singer spent in Granada and, after her sudden death in 2017 at the age of 25, due to anaphylactic shock, the filmmaker felt the need to tell her story. .
“I had a lot of admiration for her, she was a super intelligent girl, super open, I was surprised by her self-confidence and how forward she was, she was not ashamed of anything,” she recalls before “the stick” that led to her death and ” the enormous void that it left many people, both artistically and personally”.
Despite the great predisposition of people to participate in the documentary, both directors acknowledge that the road to its premiere has not been easy. Sayalonga started this solo project through crowdfunding in 2019, with which he obtained financing to start production.
“I am more specialized in fiction, so I don’t usually make documentaries, but when Juanma (Sayalonga) called me with this project in hand, I joined without thinking twice because I saw not only an opportunity to do something different, but it was It is necessary that the figure of Ana be known ”, emphasizes David Sainz, who joined in this phase together with the producer Teresa Segura.
three years of research
It has been three years of research with numerous interviews with family, friends and colleagues with whom he grew up on stage such as DJ Carlos Esteso or rapper Aenege, as well as cultural personalities such as La Mala Rodríguez, Juancho Marqués, Alejandra Martínez de Miguel or Sara Socas.
“The most beautiful thing about the documentary is the number of people who wanted to participate and how beautiful they talked about it, with a light as if they had seen a unicorn go by, which unified the tone of the documentary for us”, the authors emphasize.
For them, “Eterna” is a “typical biopic” since, apart from “reflecting on memory, time, art and the mark we leave on the world”, it begins by recounting the life of Ana Isabel, that most unknown to the artist who grew up in the small town of Adamuz and who began to stand out from a very young age.
“It was important to write a complete story, not just tell his most well-known facet, which is when he goes to Granada and later to Madrid; Before that, you have to explain how he got there, ”says Sainz.
The tape is built through images and home videos provided by the family to friends from her childhood, adolescence or her professional career, in which it is seen how she became Gata Cattana.
As it could not be otherwise, the soundtrack also takes on a special role as it is built on Cattana’s incomplete discography, which concluded with the LP “Banzai” (2017). “Her work is amazing because it seems that she has made a song for each piece of the documentary”, conclude those responsible for “Eterna”.
