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International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema

THE UTMOST EVENT OF THE LATIN AMERICAN FILMMAKING INDUSTRY SHAKES THE GROUND IN HAVANA AND OTHER VENUES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, SPREADING THE “MOVIE FEVER” AMONG LOCALS AND FOREIGNERS FOR A WHOLE WEEK

I can’t forget that back in 1978, when I had just made my debut in the journalistic and work life –which weren’t exactly the same- ICAIC’s Information Center asked me to collaborate with an event that was about to hold its first edition: the International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema.
We were supposed to write synopses and brief comments (unsigned) on the competing films, which would be printed out in a primitive mimeograph and doled out among delegates and attendees to the event in Havana. The process was headed by my colleague Carlos Galiano (editor-in-chief) and Maruja Santos (editor of Cine Cubano magazine, who spent several years in this position).
It was a very modest effort, but I felt the fledgling satisfaction of groundbreaking the building we later built: a festival that would grow with time, summon friends from every corner of the planet and generate an unstoppable flow of footage carrying solidarity and identity cohesion.
Those humble fliers became a newspaper and later on into a supplement of Havana’s Tribuna newspaper, called Tribuna del Festival, which changed years later and renamed as Diario, as we presently know it.
Since I’m celebrating as many years in the trade as Havana’s Festival editions, 38, totally devoted to this work in different areas –emceeing roundtables and press conferences, special presentations and juries- I can vouch for its growth and scope. From a baby with only competitive displays and some collateral activities, it has increases its outreach and become a more inclusive and cosmopolitan event.
Conceived and chaired since the very beginning by Alfredo Guevara, and managed by Ivan Giroud over the past 22 years, the regional primacy hasn’t ruled out the presence of the rest of the world, like some chauvinistic voices have objected. Screenings of movies from Europe, Asia and Arab countries, international contemporary panorama and special presentations, have taken us up a notch to the level of the most prestigious and embracing festivals, in line with Jose Marti’s words: “the world can be grafted in our republics, but our republics’ trunk remains the same”. And that’s the way we’ve done it: the Latin American-Caribbean trunk is growing stronger, greener and its fruits are juicier and riper.
The fact is that Havana’s Festival has witnessed the historic and social courses of our countries throughout all of these years, when the world has taken twists and turns at great speed, power and strength: the underlying memories of the foundational 1960s, Central America’s revolutionary insurgence in the 1970s, the return of Chile’s creative and revealing diaspora, the fall of dictatorships and democratic institutions in South America in the 1980s, revealing modifications and the redesigning of social and esthetic guidelines in the 1990s, prolonged and characterized by the challenges of a new century and millennium. They have all been captured, screened and encouraged by our event, which has remained faithful to its revolutionary, anti-imperialist and pro-Latin American seed, both in its main goal –the screening, whether competitive or not, of what has been done, the confrontation and recognition of the most significant elements- and its theoretical aspects, which complement each other.
I’m sure that right now, when relations between our country and the United States are getting better, the event is going to reach higher grounds, especially because the neighbor from the north, who is also overpowering in the movie industry, has taken note of the Latin American potential and collaborates with our producers by providing resources and projects.
A gathering event, without discriminating against trends, styles or discourses, engaged in both tradition and renewing continuity, the “newer” new movies elbow their way on the screens and in the meetings. As for the name, I was recently asked if, nearly 40 years later, the festival’s label is still valid and relevant.
I said yes, because experimentation and avant-garde play the leading role in the Latin American moviemaking industry, since the reality –or realities- behind its products is –are- always changing despite some obsolete burdens.
So we work on, like a Quixote that marches without paying heed to new windmills –the false promises of globalization, wild capitalism’s fitful turns, the contradictory absence of freedom in neoliberalism. The Festival of the New Latin American Cinema remains faithfully loyal to its original dream: contributing to the reestablishment of the utopia, that dream aired by the dreamers and founders of our nations with the certainty that we would make it come true someday, and the filmmaking industry in this world region is still fighting to achieve by the hand of its most legitimate and autochthonous expressions.