ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Odd Birds owner Cesar Diaz has spent years mastering the perfect cocktails and decided back in 2010 to explore the craft further.
“I found it very interesting that in the history of the evolution of the cocktail there wasn’t a lot of information put together for the new generation," Diaz said.
Diaz says his goal was to create something that would show how his culture and women played a role in the industry.
“For Spanish Americans, for Latinos, people from Europe and Spain, pretty much I was looking how did this come together," Diaz said.
Diaz would spend the next 12 years with a team researching, traveling, and filming "El Club de los Cantineros" ("The Bartender's Club").
“It was a way to pay homage to the pioneers to the people that pretty much marked the path for bartenders to follow," Diaz said. “It’s a really fascinating story about the cocktail history.”
Diaz traveled to five different countries interviewing bartenders and distilleries, including in St. Augustine.
In March, Diaz and his crew made their way to Spain for the 25th Annual Festival de Malaga. El Club de los Cantineros won "Best Long Film" in the gastronomy category.
"I’m very proud of this is where I call home today, and we’re able to show it to the world with a different perspective. And the perspective we're showing is through cocktails," Diaz said.
The film will be entered into film festivals this year with the plan to put it on a streaming platform like Netflix sometime next year.
El Club de los Cantineros is a 63-minute documentary produced by Horizonte 47 SL, Cocktail Capital LLC, and Instituto Nauta. Screenplay and Directing by Jorge Peña Martín and Joel Cortés Gimeno is the Director of Photography joined by Executive Producers Francisco S. Guitard and Cesar E. Diaz. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.