It began quietly enough. I met with Maria Julia Antuna Acosta, the coordinator of international relations of Eictv, the international film school in Havana which is the most acclaimed international film school of the world founded by Gabriel Garcia Marquez with this Nobel Prize money on land donated by Castro. Eictv is a three year film school hosting students from all over the world where they are creating the possibility of creating companies of former students working together to create real Iberoamerican cinema. The “real” University for cinema is University of the Arts, the subject of the 2012 documentary “Unfinished Spaces”. It is a four year university with a faculty of cinema (along with a faculty of dance, of pictorial arts, architecture and plastic arts).
Day One
I spent the day into the evening with Luisa Crespo, my good friend and a board member of L.A.’s Latino Queer Festival and formerly of Laliff. We are celebrating her new freedom as she has just retired as Director of the Senate of the University of California at Irvine. She has not been back to Cuba since 1975 when, as a student, she came with the Vinceremos Brigade to help build the newly liberated nation. We think it is a momentous occasion for that and for other reasons we will explain later.
I was surprised at the quietness in the Hotel Nacional where the festival headquarters are. The usual cars and cabs parked in the driveway are gone and certain passages in the hotel are blocked off. And the streets in front of the Nacional where our apartment is are very quiet as well, and all the surrounding streets are filled with police. We were flattered to think it was all for the film festival, but it was not.
12:30 after changing money and picking up our festival newspaper, the only way to know which films are playing today and tomorrow, we proceeded to see the Argentinian film about the mix and mixing of cultures taking place in an outdoor market in Buenos Aires. “ La Salada” directed by Juan Martín Hsu is a coproduction of Argentina and Spain. It is a mosaic of experiences for new immigrants in Argentina. Three tales of people from different races who struggle with loneliness and alienation during "La feria de La Salada" weave together to form a very moving and effective dramedy.
In 2013, the sixth year of the Havana Film Festival’s Works in Progress, the Post Production Award, Nuestra América Primera Copia an international competition for films from Latin America and from Cuba went to four films: one from Argentina, “La Salada” which went on to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and then San Sebastian International Film Festival 2014; one from Chile, “Yo Soy Lorena”, also screening in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and here in Havana; and two from Cuba – independent film, “Venezia” (“Venice”) which was also in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and one Icaic film, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress”) both screening here as well.
At 3:00, after a soggy pizza in the café Frescas y Chocolate across from the Charlie Chaplin Theater, we went to see “ Los Hongos”, directed by Óscar Ruiz Navia, a Colombia-Argentina-France-Germany coproduction being sold internationally by FiGa Films. This Colombian art house film was produced by Diana Bustamente’sBurning Blue (she is now director of Carthagena Film Festival) and Contravia Films. It was workshopped at the Cannes Cinefondation, funded by World Cinema Fund in Berlin. (30,000 €), Hubert Bals Fund, Ibermedia and seemingly every other European fund that could contribute was beautifully shot in Cali, Colombia and starred two skateboarding, bike-riding graffiti artists whose parents and grandparents you would want in your life. The film premiered in Toronto this year.
“Los Hongos” is beautiful to watch, engaging, funny and also eye-opening to the street culture which is actively engaged in Cali and in the affairs of the world. However, it skirted the edge of “too much of a good thing”, that is, you could almost see the European marks of inspiration shaping the almost gritty world of both poor, Christianized Afro-Colombians and bourgeous but bohemian, educated and left leaning whites living in Cali. The father of the white boy, an art-school student gone rogue, was hyper-political, famous locally as a Neapolitan type singer.
Gustavo Ruiz, who played the father was in Havana and introduced the film. He is an elegant man who deservedly is proud of his work in this film. He attended as many films as possible and while we were watching “El Cerrajero” (“The Lock Charmer”) directed by Natalia Smirnoff, we reintroduced ourselves and set up a time for an interview.
Unfortunately we were unable to get into the next film at the Charlie Chaplin Theater, “Vestido de Novia”, a film which won last year’s Work in Progress Award of Nuevas Miradas of Eictv. The huge lines around two blocks of people anxious to enter the 1,000 seat theater attest to the Cuban’s love of cinema.
Later that night, with our newfound friend, Kyle Walcott of Tobago, a 21 year old film student at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad + Tobago whose short film, “Glass Bottom Boat”, screened as part of trinidad + tobago film festival's annual showcase of Caribbean films here, we had dinner in Castropol, one of the new restaurants along the Malecon overlooking the Caribbean. Afterward we went to dance at Café Cantante and Casa de la Musica. However, because the next day (Sunday) was Day of the Martyrs, dedicated to Antonio Maceo and other heroes who died fighting for freedom in Cuba, all entertainment stopped at midnight, which allowed me to get to bed at a decent hour and actually get eight hours of sleep.
Day Two
This morning we handled the stressful logistics of scheduling our time for the upcoming day and people-hunting at the Nacional, no easy task as few who are not Cuban have cel tels that work here. I introduced Kyle to Anne Cross who comes from Scotland every year to find Cuban films to bring to the U.K. for her Cuban film festival. Anne is the mother of Kyle’s colleague, Nicola Cross, a Trinidadian who works with the t+tff and teaches at the University of West Indies.
We three went off to see the Infanta Theater where Kyle’s “Glass Bottom Boat” will screen. Typical of Havana, there on the street, my friend Rolando Almirante (one of Havana’s foremost documentary filmmakers) called to me. With him was Catherine Murphy of “Maestras” the doc about the teachers who went after the Cuban Revolution to the countryside to teach literacy. They are both on the jury awarding a prize to films concerning violence against women or its solutions. She invited us to go later that night to La Fabrica, a new art space opened by singer-composer X Alfonso’s parents of the group Sintesis to hear a concert.
Later that afternoon we walked on to Callejon de Hamel, a street that looks like a combination of Watts Towers and Berlin’s Tacheles and where every Sunday they have that special Cuban music called Rumba. There we found that because it was Antonio Maceos’ Day of the Martyrs, there would be no rumba there or at Casa de la Musica later. I bought a small but beautiful lithograph called 100% Cuban by a local artist showing on “Jon de Hamel”. We had a Boringa (rum drink) with two locals, talked and then walked home along the Malecon. At the statue of Antonio Maceo we watched local members of the Freemasons and veterans place a memorial wreath. As we approached the Nacional from behind, we discovered limousines and chauffeurs from all the embassies along with a cadre of police dressed in their best ceremonial uniforms quietly waiting while whatever was happening at the hotel continued...
Luisa and I grabbed a bite at the palador Los Amigos (palador is the name of restaurants which operated only semi-legally in earlier days but which are now totally legal). After dinner we went to the Cuban Communist Youth Center, Pabellion Cuba, to see Natalia Smirnoff’s Lock Charmer (El Cerrajero) (Isa: Memento), a lovely art film from Argentina which premiered at Sundance January 2014 and went on to screen in Cartagena Film Festival in March 2014 with three other Argentine features, Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) (Isa: Urban Distribution International) after its Berlinale premiere and also showing here in Havana, The Color That Fell From Heaven (El Color que cayó del cielo ),and The Third Bank of the River (La tercera orilla) after its Berlin premiere and which is showing here as well.
At 10 pm went to La Fabrica, a great art space in a former factory, next to a great palador inside the huge factory chimney itself. There we saw the producer Rosa Bosch who has moved from Mexico to Cuba and her friends including a young producer whose short “The Malecon” we hope to catch. La Fabrica exhibits art, artist-inspired jewelry and other “objets”, like clothes made of recycled tabs that open cans or computer wires, designer chairs and furniture. It has several patio bars and performing areas with great acoustics. In one area, we caught three short acts. One large (and gorgeous) man in a small black and gold beaded dress, high heels and a cowboy hat sang a hot song as he posed and strutted. He was incredibly charismatic and enthralled me with his grace alternating between gorgeous female and gorgeous male. – a true gender bender.
Next an elegant petit black woman in a small red dress sang with great gusto a R&B spoof, going overboard with emotions and the tremor in her voice, exaggerated as she sang her lament. It was a hilarious well done performance. Great entertainment is instantly understandable even though I could not understand the words being sung. And the feeling that “only in Cuba” would someone create acts like these was also strong. The familiarity but at the same time the foreignness of Cuba and its people is a contradiction we constantly experience here.
Later we listened to the concert given by the youngest daughter of the renowned balladeer, Pablo Milanese. Catherine was taken by surprise because she had told us the songs were from her latest album, but what she actually was singing were songs Catherine’s own (ex) husband had written which were all about Catherine and love and Catherine and divorce. What a magical world Cuba offers.
Day Two ended on that high note. Onward to tomorrow and more surprises.
Day One
I spent the day into the evening with Luisa Crespo, my good friend and a board member of L.A.’s Latino Queer Festival and formerly of Laliff. We are celebrating her new freedom as she has just retired as Director of the Senate of the University of California at Irvine. She has not been back to Cuba since 1975 when, as a student, she came with the Vinceremos Brigade to help build the newly liberated nation. We think it is a momentous occasion for that and for other reasons we will explain later.
I was surprised at the quietness in the Hotel Nacional where the festival headquarters are. The usual cars and cabs parked in the driveway are gone and certain passages in the hotel are blocked off. And the streets in front of the Nacional where our apartment is are very quiet as well, and all the surrounding streets are filled with police. We were flattered to think it was all for the film festival, but it was not.
12:30 after changing money and picking up our festival newspaper, the only way to know which films are playing today and tomorrow, we proceeded to see the Argentinian film about the mix and mixing of cultures taking place in an outdoor market in Buenos Aires. “ La Salada” directed by Juan Martín Hsu is a coproduction of Argentina and Spain. It is a mosaic of experiences for new immigrants in Argentina. Three tales of people from different races who struggle with loneliness and alienation during "La feria de La Salada" weave together to form a very moving and effective dramedy.
In 2013, the sixth year of the Havana Film Festival’s Works in Progress, the Post Production Award, Nuestra América Primera Copia an international competition for films from Latin America and from Cuba went to four films: one from Argentina, “La Salada” which went on to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and then San Sebastian International Film Festival 2014; one from Chile, “Yo Soy Lorena”, also screening in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and here in Havana; and two from Cuba – independent film, “Venezia” (“Venice”) which was also in the Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and one Icaic film, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress”) both screening here as well.
At 3:00, after a soggy pizza in the café Frescas y Chocolate across from the Charlie Chaplin Theater, we went to see “ Los Hongos”, directed by Óscar Ruiz Navia, a Colombia-Argentina-France-Germany coproduction being sold internationally by FiGa Films. This Colombian art house film was produced by Diana Bustamente’sBurning Blue (she is now director of Carthagena Film Festival) and Contravia Films. It was workshopped at the Cannes Cinefondation, funded by World Cinema Fund in Berlin. (30,000 €), Hubert Bals Fund, Ibermedia and seemingly every other European fund that could contribute was beautifully shot in Cali, Colombia and starred two skateboarding, bike-riding graffiti artists whose parents and grandparents you would want in your life. The film premiered in Toronto this year.
“Los Hongos” is beautiful to watch, engaging, funny and also eye-opening to the street culture which is actively engaged in Cali and in the affairs of the world. However, it skirted the edge of “too much of a good thing”, that is, you could almost see the European marks of inspiration shaping the almost gritty world of both poor, Christianized Afro-Colombians and bourgeous but bohemian, educated and left leaning whites living in Cali. The father of the white boy, an art-school student gone rogue, was hyper-political, famous locally as a Neapolitan type singer.
Gustavo Ruiz, who played the father was in Havana and introduced the film. He is an elegant man who deservedly is proud of his work in this film. He attended as many films as possible and while we were watching “El Cerrajero” (“The Lock Charmer”) directed by Natalia Smirnoff, we reintroduced ourselves and set up a time for an interview.
Unfortunately we were unable to get into the next film at the Charlie Chaplin Theater, “Vestido de Novia”, a film which won last year’s Work in Progress Award of Nuevas Miradas of Eictv. The huge lines around two blocks of people anxious to enter the 1,000 seat theater attest to the Cuban’s love of cinema.
Later that night, with our newfound friend, Kyle Walcott of Tobago, a 21 year old film student at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad + Tobago whose short film, “Glass Bottom Boat”, screened as part of trinidad + tobago film festival's annual showcase of Caribbean films here, we had dinner in Castropol, one of the new restaurants along the Malecon overlooking the Caribbean. Afterward we went to dance at Café Cantante and Casa de la Musica. However, because the next day (Sunday) was Day of the Martyrs, dedicated to Antonio Maceo and other heroes who died fighting for freedom in Cuba, all entertainment stopped at midnight, which allowed me to get to bed at a decent hour and actually get eight hours of sleep.
Day Two
This morning we handled the stressful logistics of scheduling our time for the upcoming day and people-hunting at the Nacional, no easy task as few who are not Cuban have cel tels that work here. I introduced Kyle to Anne Cross who comes from Scotland every year to find Cuban films to bring to the U.K. for her Cuban film festival. Anne is the mother of Kyle’s colleague, Nicola Cross, a Trinidadian who works with the t+tff and teaches at the University of West Indies.
We three went off to see the Infanta Theater where Kyle’s “Glass Bottom Boat” will screen. Typical of Havana, there on the street, my friend Rolando Almirante (one of Havana’s foremost documentary filmmakers) called to me. With him was Catherine Murphy of “Maestras” the doc about the teachers who went after the Cuban Revolution to the countryside to teach literacy. They are both on the jury awarding a prize to films concerning violence against women or its solutions. She invited us to go later that night to La Fabrica, a new art space opened by singer-composer X Alfonso’s parents of the group Sintesis to hear a concert.
Later that afternoon we walked on to Callejon de Hamel, a street that looks like a combination of Watts Towers and Berlin’s Tacheles and where every Sunday they have that special Cuban music called Rumba. There we found that because it was Antonio Maceos’ Day of the Martyrs, there would be no rumba there or at Casa de la Musica later. I bought a small but beautiful lithograph called 100% Cuban by a local artist showing on “Jon de Hamel”. We had a Boringa (rum drink) with two locals, talked and then walked home along the Malecon. At the statue of Antonio Maceo we watched local members of the Freemasons and veterans place a memorial wreath. As we approached the Nacional from behind, we discovered limousines and chauffeurs from all the embassies along with a cadre of police dressed in their best ceremonial uniforms quietly waiting while whatever was happening at the hotel continued...
Luisa and I grabbed a bite at the palador Los Amigos (palador is the name of restaurants which operated only semi-legally in earlier days but which are now totally legal). After dinner we went to the Cuban Communist Youth Center, Pabellion Cuba, to see Natalia Smirnoff’s Lock Charmer (El Cerrajero) (Isa: Memento), a lovely art film from Argentina which premiered at Sundance January 2014 and went on to screen in Cartagena Film Festival in March 2014 with three other Argentine features, Natural Sciences (Ciencias Naturales) (Isa: Urban Distribution International) after its Berlinale premiere and also showing here in Havana, The Color That Fell From Heaven (El Color que cayó del cielo ),and The Third Bank of the River (La tercera orilla) after its Berlin premiere and which is showing here as well.
At 10 pm went to La Fabrica, a great art space in a former factory, next to a great palador inside the huge factory chimney itself. There we saw the producer Rosa Bosch who has moved from Mexico to Cuba and her friends including a young producer whose short “The Malecon” we hope to catch. La Fabrica exhibits art, artist-inspired jewelry and other “objets”, like clothes made of recycled tabs that open cans or computer wires, designer chairs and furniture. It has several patio bars and performing areas with great acoustics. In one area, we caught three short acts. One large (and gorgeous) man in a small black and gold beaded dress, high heels and a cowboy hat sang a hot song as he posed and strutted. He was incredibly charismatic and enthralled me with his grace alternating between gorgeous female and gorgeous male. – a true gender bender.
Next an elegant petit black woman in a small red dress sang with great gusto a R&B spoof, going overboard with emotions and the tremor in her voice, exaggerated as she sang her lament. It was a hilarious well done performance. Great entertainment is instantly understandable even though I could not understand the words being sung. And the feeling that “only in Cuba” would someone create acts like these was also strong. The familiarity but at the same time the foreignness of Cuba and its people is a contradiction we constantly experience here.
Later we listened to the concert given by the youngest daughter of the renowned balladeer, Pablo Milanese. Catherine was taken by surprise because she had told us the songs were from her latest album, but what she actually was singing were songs Catherine’s own (ex) husband had written which were all about Catherine and love and Catherine and divorce. What a magical world Cuba offers.
Day Two ended on that high note. Onward to tomorrow and more surprises.
- 12/12/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Zero Motivation, a dark comedy about the lives of Israeli female soldiers, was named the top film at the 13th Tribeca Film Festival. Writer/director Tayla Lavie accepted the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature, as well as the Nora Ephron Prize, which goes to the female filmmaker who best embodies Ephron’s spirit and vision. “In her unique and ambitious first feature, deftly handled such difficult themes as the military, sexism, love, ambition, and friendship,” the jury noted. “This filmmaker also pulled off the awesome feat of managing multiple characters and storylines. In what was definitely the most hilarious...
- 4/25/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Angela Dufresne was born in Connecticut and grew up in Kansas. She studied painting and video at the Kansas City Art Institute and painting at Tyler School of Art. She did residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown in 2002–2004 and 2003–2004 and at Yaddo this year. She taught painting, and culture at large, in various places: Sarah Lawrence, Princeton University, and Rhode Island School of Design (Risd). Dufresne curated several show and video screenings nationally, including Portraiture for the Silicon Enlightenment: (Fuckheads); Negative Joy, a video screening at 443 Pas, New York; and Available, a show about still life at Monya Rowe Gallery. She has exhibited her work in various group shows in museums: The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Rose Museum, Mills College Art Museum, Richmond University Museum of Art, and MoMA PS1. She has also had various solo shows nationally and internationally: a project at the Hammer Museum...
- 2/27/2014
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
London, May 24: A groom has been arrested and locked up for looting the club that hosted his wedding reception.
Christopher Richards, along with usher George Taylor and two others, stole booze, computers and Dvds worth nearly 23,000 pounds and caused damage worth 24,000 pounds during the burglary, the Mirror reported.
A court heard that six months ago, club boss Catherine Murphy gave the 25-year-old and his partner, Bridie Sparks, a half-price champagne buffet as the couple were broke.
In a statement to Burnley crown court, Catherine, 34, said that she was "tortured" by the betrayal and she also tried to kill herself.
Richards surrendered himself after CCTV caught him in the act at the Hub Club, in Bacup,.
Christopher Richards, along with usher George Taylor and two others, stole booze, computers and Dvds worth nearly 23,000 pounds and caused damage worth 24,000 pounds during the burglary, the Mirror reported.
A court heard that six months ago, club boss Catherine Murphy gave the 25-year-old and his partner, Bridie Sparks, a half-price champagne buffet as the couple were broke.
In a statement to Burnley crown court, Catherine, 34, said that she was "tortured" by the betrayal and she also tried to kill herself.
Richards surrendered himself after CCTV caught him in the act at the Hub Club, in Bacup,.
- 5/24/2013
- by Lohit Reddy
- RealBollywood.com
Havana, Nov 2 (Ians/Efe) Mexican singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas will perform for the first time in Cuba Dec 3 in a concert to help the Un's worldwide campaign to end violence against women, Cuban official media said Thursday.
Venegas will join Cuban musicians like Santiago Feliu, Rodrigo Garcia and Rochy Ameneiro in a unique concert at Havana's National Theater.
The performer of songs such as "Andar conmigo", "Lento" and "Me voy" will also participate along with Us documentary filmmaker Catherine Murphy on a panel the next day in the Cuban capital.
Venegas will join Cuban musicians like Santiago Feliu, Rodrigo Garcia and Rochy Ameneiro in a unique concert at Havana's National Theater.
The performer of songs such as "Andar conmigo", "Lento" and "Me voy" will also participate along with Us documentary filmmaker Catherine Murphy on a panel the next day in the Cuban capital.
- 11/2/2012
- by Leon David
- RealBollywood.com
Jen started crying tears of joy while talking about her engagement to Justin Theroux with her bestie Chelsea Handler on Oct. 15 but that's not the only breaking news -- she opted to leave her bra at home! Jennifer Aniston is a free spirit! The gorgeous 43-year-old actress looked stunning in a black leather top on Chelsea Lately but there's one thing you couldn't avoid looking at the entire time -- her nipples! Jen is known for going braless and we love her for it! We told you that when Chelsea asked Jen about the engagement to Justin Theroux, she began to cry. Back in August, the couple announced their engagement, with Justin's rep giving us this statement: "Justin Theroux had an amazing birthday Friday, receiving an extraordinary gift when his girlfriend, Jennifer Aniston, accepted his proposal of marriage.: Do you love how carefree Jen is? http://youtu.be...
- 10/16/2012
- by Hollywood Life Staff
- HollywoodLife
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