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An American in Havana: The 29th Havana International Film Festival

Published on January 16, 2008

Pedro being interviewed on Teves (Venezuelan Social Content Television).

Traveling to Cuba to attend and screen, POPaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English, at the 29th Havana International Film Festival was the highlight of my 2007 world tour. Not only was I able to present POPagandain person I was also able to travel throughout Havana as a freelance journalist and take in the color of the city as well as review some of the films at the festival.

Contrary to popular opinion, it isn't illegal for US citizens to travel to Cuba. What we know as the "travel ban" is actually a restriction on financial transactions related to travel to, from and within Cuba. What is prohibited is for US citizens to spend money in Cuba.

Thanks to support from the Centro Nacional Autónomo de Cinematografía (Venezuelan National Film Board) I was able to legally travel to Cuba without the required Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) license. I was on a "fully hosted" trip, where a third-party, not subject to US jurisdiction, pays for all of my expenses exempting me from the travel ban. My only obligation was to report on two Venezuelan films, one documentary and one feature, screened at the festival.

The first film, directed by José Ángel Palacios Lascorz and titled Posada Carriles: Terrorismo Made in USA (Posada Carriles: Terrorism Made in USA), was a documentary about Luis Posada Carriles, a 79-year-old anti-Castro Cuban exile and former CIA operative linked to the bombing of a Cuban airliner (Cubana de Aviacion) whose release from prison by the US infuriated the authorities in Cuba and Venezuela. The bombing killed 73 people, including several teenage members of Cuba's national fencing team.

Posada Carriles documents the life of Posada, starting with his brutal and cruel CIA sponsored terrorist career throughout Latin America to his welcoming in Miami by the current Bush administration in 2005; to reveal the many faces of terrorism made in the USA.

Postales de Leningrado (Postcard s from Leningrad), a feature film by Venezuelan filmmaker Mariana Rondón tells the story of a young guerrilla during the 1960's uprisings in Venezuela who was forced to give birth in secret. The newborn is the first child to be born on Mother's Day, and pictures of both mother and daughter appear on the front pages of one of the main newspapers. From that moment on, mother and child are on the run.

Disguises, hidden places and false names are all typical for the days of the young girl who, together with her cousin Teo, reinvent the adventures of their parents. Although for the moment they are able to escape their fears, the kids know that their parents might never come back and instead they only receive postcards from Leningrad.

Both of these Venezuelan films, the documentary and the feature narrative, are creative and aesthetically pleasing. While the information in Posada Carriles was very eye-opening to me, it would have sustained my interest more had it been edited for television (down to 57 minutes). The documentary could have benefited from further story development to maintain the interest of its audience for a full 90 minutes.

On the other hand, Postales de Leningrado is very well paced and I enjoyed the way the director takes the time to allow for character development. This feature film was produced and is being distributed by Amazonia Films, the Venezuelan film distribution company fully financed by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Its mission is to encourage, develop and promote the Venezuelan film industry, which currently has some of the most progressive and favorable laws in Latin America. These are exciting times for filmmakers in Venezuela, especially for those who are looking for co-productions.

A flower vendor at Old Havana.

During my stay at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba (National Hotel of Cuba) one of the things I enjoyed was sitting in their beautiful gardens and perusing my daily film program each day. El Nacional is Havana's most famous hotel and a Cuban national monument. It first opened its doors in 1930 and has been frequented by the rich and famous ever since.

The hotel is sophisticated, refined and subtly stylish. The marvelous location, spacious gardens and magnificent views all contribute to the magic. There is also something special about cruising through the lobby, admiring its mosaics, hardwood ceiling, and beautiful chandeliers and feeling that you are following in the footsteps of the so many famous people—Frank Sinatra, Al Capone, Winston Churchill and Venezuela's first democratically elected president and most famous writer Romulo Gallegos—who have graced its presence.

In contrast to the historic style of the Hotel Nacional is the Multicine Infanta (Infanta Multiplex); the only multiple screen theater in Havana as well as the newest theater in the city. This is where I screened POPaganda receiving a 5-minute standing ovation on its premier night in Havana.

The Multicine Infanta is an intimate setting with about 120 stadium style seats per screen similar to the theater design at the IFC Center in New York City. At the Multicine Infanta I saw the short Cuban documentary Destino: Cuba (Destination: Cuba), a 20-minute film by Gabriela Vázquez Rodés, a very young and dynamic Cuban filmmaker who made this, her first film, through a $3,000 grant she won from the Spanish Embassy in Cuba.

I was very impressed with this short documentary that follows five foreigners living in Cuba: a Russian woman, an Englishman, a young man from Guatemala, a man from Angola, and an old woman from Spain. They have made families in Cuba, they live like ordinary Cubans, and some have taken permanent roots and chosen Cuba as their country.

The ten days I spent in Cuba, with its warm hot days and breezy Caribbean nights, was an experience I enjoyed to the fullest. I had the opportunity to chat with celebrities like the daughter of Ernesto "Che" Guevara; actors like Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, and Javier Bardem; and cool filmmakers from countries throughout Latin America. Not to mention the smells, colors, sensuality, music, contrasts, and flavors of Havana were unlike anything else I have experienced anywhere else in the world. The people, the architecture, the rhythms, the heat, the sea, the food, the joy, the sadness, the sunsets, were all elements that kept me in a constant state of sensory awareness as I desperately tried to take it all in—day by day, hour by hour and minute by minute—with the utmost intensity and curiosity.

Closing night ceremony and the screening of Earth at the impressive Karl Marx Theatre.

The magnificent beauty of Cuba was reflected in the closing film of the 29th Havana International Film Festival. Earth, directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, is an unforgettable trip through the seasons and the daily battle for survival on our planet. Shot over a period of five years by over 40 cameramen on 200 locations worldwide, this visual poem pays tribute to the beauty of our planet and warns of the eminent destruction of global warming.

As a New Yorker lusting for a change of pace and place, I was happy to take in all of Havana; breathing it; feeling it, and most importantly living it one day at a time. Taking part in the festival and daily life in Havana was a life affirming experience; allowing me to re-connect with my surroundings and true feelings.