CINEMA: Film Festival Brings Cheer to Cuba

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Dec 9 1997 (IPS) - Cubans put aside their day-to-day economic concerns this week to flock to cinemas in the capital and around the country to see about 300 works shown at the 19th Festival of New Latin American Film.

From Dec 1-12, the main concern of many of Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants was not how short they were in money for food, or the headaches in getting to and from work on the country’s deteriorating public transport system. The problem only was how to see as many films as possible.

It was a fun time, “impossible to suppress,” note one avid movie-goer.. “You go from one cinema to another chasing movies. You start at ten in the morning and finish after midnight,” says Alvaro Guzman, a doctor who scheduled his vacations to coincide with the film festival.

Like the majority of the people who thronged the outlying movie theatres, Guzman bought more than 20 tickets for a number of cinemas at the price of two Cuban pesos each, several weeks before the festival. The Cuban peso is on par with the dollar at the official exchange rate, but in the government exchange bureaux the dollar buys 23 pesos. Guzman changed three dollars, and with his 69 pesos went to see all the movies he could.

Around 30 cinemas, located in the most varied neighbourhoods of Havana, showed some 330 fictional and animated films, documentaries and videos, samples of the latest and best from Latin America, Spain, French, Italy, Finland, England, Norway, Japan and independent U.S. productions.

Film buffs had to choose the day’s four or five films from a daily list of 60.

“When the festival starts, the routine completely changes in this city,” says Yanet Toirac, a student of communications at the University of Havana. “You live as if in another time, in a kind of madness that doesn’t end until the presentation of the awards.”

Critics had particular praise for the Argentine films ‘Martin (Hache)’ (Martin ‘H’), directed by Adolfo Aristarain, and ‘Cenizas del Paraiso’ (Ashes of Paradise) directed by Marcelo Pineiro.

Mexico’s ‘Cilantro y Perejil’ (Coriander and Parsley), directed by Rafael Montero – which recently received nine statuettes at the delivery of the Aries awards bestowed by Mexico’s Academy of Cinematographic Sciences and Arts – also became a a favourite here.

Movie addicts noted the most important aspect of the Cuban film festival is the wide popularity it enjoys, which makes it “an additional attraction for directors and actors who enjoy the communication established with the public.”

Perhaps Cubans’ “fanaticism” for film was best described by Argentine actor Dario Grandinetti, who compared it to Argentinians’ love for soccer.

For almost 20 years, the beginning of winter has brought the most important cultural happening of Cuba, which extends beyond Havana to several cities in the interior where films are also shown.

It is fairly common to find people who have asked to schedule their vacations for the first half of December. Others flock to Havana from the interior, and a considerable number of fanatic followers of Brazilian soap operas even turn off their TV sets.

According to ‘Bohemia’, a bimonthly magazine of nationwide circulation, last year’s festival drew half a million movie-goers in Havana alone, and more than three million counting the other eight participating cities. This year was likely to set new box office records when final figures are in, as, according to the festival’s organisers, the latest selection has been broader and more varied.

Film critic Arsenio Cicero Sancristobal says that by contrast with other film festivals, Cuba’s is far from a “procession of stars.” The key element, he adds, is the opportunity of interchange between directors from all latitudes.

CINEMA: Film Festival Brings Cheer to Cuba

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Dec 9 1997 (IPS) - Cubans put aside their day-to-day economic concerns this week to flock to cinemas in the capital and around the country to see about 300 works shown at the 19th Festival of New Latin American Film.
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