Video: Torreblanca - "1000 Fantasmas"


The frame opens with two adolescent girls entering a door and quickly surveying their surrounding. Director Benjy Estrada doesn’t immediately follow their personal eye line. Instead, he presents the place where the girls will be sheltered through a high shot that slowly descends into the characters’ eye level. There is contrast and content in the making of this decision. The offering of an aerial shot tells us this is a clip of magnus scope –which you may read as the view God would have when looking over these young ladies. The sinister music and adolescent themes quickly refer back to the films of Carlos Enrique Taboada (Hasta el viento tiene miedo, Más negro que la noche). And as the melody of Torreblanca’s “1000 Fantasmas” progresses, we find ourselves presented with a phantasmagoria –one with plenty of space for explorations of the heart and the flesh. A promising premise for the visual attachment to the first single of Torreblanca's forthcoming album, El Polvo en la Luz.

The name of the clip's producing company, Los Niños Perdidos, sure is fitting. The teenagers soak in water for the thrill of the splash, but also for cleansing. Affording such a retreat means these kids belong to the bourgeoisie. And yet, they show little refinement, manifesting violently in frustration. Perhaps negotiating their newfound social interaction outside the virtual networks. When contained in the pool, the kids revolt. When out in the lake and nature, they exercise their fears and encounter their roots. This presentation of a colossal youth acquiring self-worth and knowledge goes in deeper into the personal ghosts of Juan Manuel Torreblanca. “Pobre de tí,” he sings with a wounding tone over and over –perhaps singing as a way of negotiating and reconciling with his own adolescent years. At the end of the clip, we see the same girls leaving the magical place. One girl looks back over her shoulder, glimpsing at what she’s leaving behind, just as the music leaves us on a key of unsettling suspense.