The opening ceremony of the Havana Film Festival in New York will inaugurate today a varied lineup that confirms the richness of the seventh art in the region, according to renowned Cuban critic Luciano Castillo.
The 24th edition of the event stands out for the selection of films and informative exhibitions with two retrospectives programmed that are very attractive to the public, according to the researcher.
"People are surprised by the geographic and thematic diversity of the festival, not only with films in competition, but also by the informative films that will also be exhibited and give the broadest possible panorama of the reality of the new Latin American cinema," he said in an interview with Prensa Latina.
The emblematic festival will have its opening ceremony tonight after two days dedicated to retrospectives, talks and a workshop for writers.
The program also includes the screening of 18 films in competition, 11 documentaries and four short films at the Quad cinema in the city, where the awards for best fiction film, best documentary, best screenplay, best director and best actor/actress will also be presented on April 18.
In parallel, several screenings and talks pay tribute to documentary filmmaker Nicolas Guillen Landrian and film director Tomas Gutierrez Alea, considered by Castillo as two cult creators for the seventh art in Cuba.
In the case of Titón, for being the author of a classic of Latin American cinema as Memories of Underdevelopment and other very important, while the work of Landrián is recognized mainly for documentary filmmaking, he said.
The work of "Nicolasito" is remembered, first because of a whole aura that surrounded his filmography, sometimes some copies disappeared and others were not exhibited, until finally 10 of the titles have been restored and there are four others in process, he said.
Part of that process was collected by Cuban director Ernesto Daranas in his documentary Landrián, which is also being shown at the Havana Film Festival, and was selected to be presented in the documentary section on the history of cinema at the Venice International Film Festival, he also said.
The restored pieces of both creators have just been exhibited at the Cuban film festival held for the first time in Havana for the 65th anniversary of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (Icaic) as a tribute to that institution and to both creators.
It is a sign of good health for the seventh art on the island and the need to continue injecting new talents and new airs that blow, added the researcher.
Among the Cuban films arriving in New York, Castillo highlighted the feature films La Mujer Salvaje, by Alan González; Una noche con los Rolling Stones, by Patricia Ramos; and Bajo un sol poderoso, by Enrique Álvarez.
At the same time, the documentaries La leyenda de Arsenio Rodríguez, by Rolando Almirante; Santa Canción, by Juan Carlos Travieso; and Jíbaro, by Osmanys Sánchez stand out.
"I am very happy because a very interesting balance has been achieved between fiction, documentaries and films from different generations of filmmakers and nationalities that give us an idea of the vitality of the new Latin American cinema movement, which is the only continental movement in the history of cinema," he remarked.
At the same time, the large lineup confirms the popularity of the annual festival, which is about to celebrate a quarter of a century with memorable moments.
"I have a very special memory of an event dedicated to Gabriel García Márquez where one of the scriptwriters with whom he collaborated participated, but I also remember when Alina Rodríguez presented Conducta and won an acting award," he recalled.
There are many moments like this, he added, because many of the great filmmakers of our country have passed through here, have presented their works, discussed with the public and in this interrelationship there has been much enrichment.