Luis Felipe Rojas, Translator: Raul G.
It was during the last days of March that I heard the unfortunate news:
those of us who are cinema fans have lost the "Humberto Solas" Poor
Cinema Festival. A disagreement between the convoking groups of Holguin
and Havana left us helpless — those of us who would visit a film theater
without prejudice and with less intentions than the those who have
commercial tendencies or transcendent postures which some filmmakers
want to include in every moment of their lives.
All sorts of artists would come to this festival with desires to
showcase fresh ideas and rigor through other essences and other
discourses in a more democratic and participatory form of cinema, and of
course, without ever ceasing to entertain. Solas helped that magic. Many
people from Holguin helped him, while some others planted trials and
tribulations along his path so that he would get knocked down from time
to time. Between so much bureaucracy and vulgar provincialism, they
would have soon stripped the author of "Lucia" from his desire to go on.
What is happening now could have been seen coming. Finally, during the
beginning of Spring, the effort took place (at least the public ones in
the province) between the opinions and decisions of Alexis Triana (the
Provincial Director of Culture) and Sergio Benvenuto Solas (nephew of
Solas and president of the Festival Organizer Committee).
First came some e-mails, they say, and later the local publication of
"La Luz" which informed a small number of Holguin natives of Triana's
reasons. Since so few of us have access to our e-mail, we have to go
along with what Triana has to say about Benvenuto's position. The fact
is that the festival will be annual, but will be held in the capital of
the country.
Gibara, one of the Cuban paradises of the North Atlantic, had sharpened
its teeth. A swarm of men and women prepared their homes to offer
rentals for foreign and national visitors. Drinks, fish, and seafood
already spread their aroma throughout the red roofs which characterize
this seaside villa.
Mario is a childhood friend of mine. For three years now he has been
aiming to make the salary of a few months in only one week through
cinema: "People buy and look for all sorts of things, from old books,
old pieces of artwork, precious woods, corals, fish, everything. The
festival was the important moment", he painfully told me.
During the beginning of March I had passed by Gibara and firsthand
witnessed the anxiety. To me, Gibara produced two very different
emotions. It was there that I discovered weekend breaks during the 90′s.
It was our escape from the city into that paradise we believed in.
Later, in 2006, I received the worst repudiation attack ever. That
specific hate session was prepared by the then Captain Abel Ramirez. We
were at the house of the dissident Alexander Santos and they placed the
mobs there to bark against us. Afterward, I returned to that place with
somewhat of a painful sensation.
Last Saturday, April 2nd, they distributed "La Luz" newspaper, the
informative paper of Provincial Culture, and apparently the remedy was
worse than the disease. Since no one can be blamed, the people do not
believe in the absurdities of a Benvenuto who only comes once a year.
They also do not accept much diatribe from the provincial Director of
Culture.
Apparently, the justifications don't matter when it deals with an event
which placed the town at the spotlight of the entire nation for a few
days, and which also provided food for dozens of families (with room,
car, and bike rentals) from the recently caught fish and with a cinema
festival full of young blood.
I ate at the home of two new friends and spent an afternoon of coffee
and good conversations with the recurrent theme of the festival.
Everything points out to the opinion that the majority would have
preferred a dialogue, saving the film festival in Giabara at all costs.
If the supposed clumsiness had not been ordered from an ideological
position of the Communist Party, then there would be no reason to not
have been able to find a solution.
A concert by Carlos Varela or X Alfonso, a contemporary art exposition,
and interesting debates (which I took part in various times) which
accompanied the film screenings were well worth sitting at the table to
debate if it would continue being held here in this worm-eaten land or not.
I am translating the feeling of local families, and I think I have the
right to condemn the fact that the weapons of fruitful dialogue have
been ignored, although the previously mentioned provincial functionary
has stated in his article that "a new habitual round of anti-Cuban
paranoia" has occurred.
The festival was mine as well, and although an invisible edict dictated
nearly 4 years ago has left me outside of the debates, the public
readings, and the possibilities of publishing, I would have added my
signature in favor of saving that festival which vanished in our very
own hands. Wherever he is, Humberto Solas must be furious.
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