Cleveland Film Festival features flamenco documentary co-directed by Wooster faculty and students

Flamenco, The Fire Within will premiere on April 16, 2026, at the Playhouse Square Ohio Theatre, shown as part of the Local Heroes Shorts (Program 3), featuring films made by student filmmakers from Ohio, with tickets available online.

The short documentary film, mostly in Spanish with English subtitles, captures the rigor and passion that drive flamenco artists toward virtuosity and transcendence. It is the product of the 2025 Wooster-Madrid TREK, which combined a study of the history of Madrid with a filmmaking workshop.

“For me, documentary is an act of empathy. It’s an act of listening,” said Greg Shaya, Henry J. and Laura H. Copeland professor of European history, and global media & digital studies, who led the TREK and co-directed the film with Aída Díaz de León, visiting assistant professor of Spanish. Seven Wooster students with a variety of majors took part in the program: Tobi Aina ’28, Nurain Amier ’26, Shannon Dunning ’27, TyLynn Gault ’27, Emma McKone ’26, Henry Walter-Wilde ’27, and Eva Wojciechowski ’26.

While in Madrid, the student film crew closely followed four dancers—Mía, Sara, Gabriel and Rafael—as they told the stories of their journeys to flamenco and the spirit, or fire within, that animates their art. Consequently, the crew learned a lot about flamenco in addition to learning how to make films.

“It was technically impressive, but it was also emotionally beautiful. I thought that they summed up every human emotion in the show,” said Dunning, a music major.

The experience was completely hands-on with students learning all aspects of filmmaking. “I got to do a lot of media wrangling and learned how to manage all the footage, which made me understand a lot more about the equipment that goes into actually capturing a shot,” said Amier, who is majoring in biology and Chinese studies.

Shaya added, “I love when the students’ eyes open wide, and you can see they’re thinking. There’s something cool going on here, and I’m a part of it.”

One of the biggest takeaways for the students was how much work goes into making a film, even a short one. “There’s an understanding that you’re going to pour a lot of work into it, even if the project you actually end up making isn’t huge,” said Walter-Wilde, a biochemistry & molecular biology major completing a pathway in digital & visual storytelling.

Shaya and Díaz de León, along with collaborators in Madrid, helped the students put the pieces together. “There are so many challenges to making a movie,” Shaya said. “Who are your characters? Where’s the story? I feel like we’re running to make this thing happen, but it’s magic when things come together.”

Faculty praised the students for their dedication to the project. “At Wooster, we have such amazing students who are smart, hard-working, curious, and engaged,” said Shaya. “What I appreciate about youth,” added Díaz de León, “is that they don’t have limits.”

In addition to making “Flamenco, The Fire Within,” which is only available through public screenings, the students created a short YouTube video about their experience, titled “The Making Of Flamenco Dreams.”

The 2025 Wooster-Madrid TREK was made possible with support from the Discovery Learning Endowment and the Yamazaki Experiential Travel Fund. Six Wooster students will attend a 2026 Wooster-Madrid TREK and plan to make a film about the neighborhood of Malasaña. More information about supporting these funds is available by contacting advancement@wooster.edu.

Featured Image: Students Henry Walter-Wilde ’27, Tobi Aina ’28, Emma McKone ’26, TyLynn Gault ’27, Nurain Amier ’26, Shannon Dunning ’27, Eva Wojciechowski ’26 participated in a TREK, off-campus filming workshop in Madrid, led by Professor Greg Shaya, and Visiting Assistant Professor Aída Díaz de León.

Posted in Homepage Featured, News on April 6, 2026.