Culture

“I don’t know why people don’t run to see these Soviet films, they’re the best around,” said a 37-year-old plastic artist called “Fede” who says he never misses a Havana Film Festival. The fact is that Cubans have a very marked love-hate relationship with Russia.

The temperature can go up inside the movie theater when the film begins and the audience doesn’t like something. For example: the expressions started to rise in tone while I was watching “La fiesta de la niña muerta”, an excellent Brazilian film competing in the Opera Prima first film category

Using all types of materials and recyclables to create new useable objects is nothing foreign to the Cuban population, which lived a severe economic crisis in the nineties. The “Create in Cuba” show is now open to the public at the Villena Art Gallery.

Many of us were outside the main movie theaters in the capital before 10:00 a.m. Tuesday to catch the first of five or six showings on the opening day of the 30th Havana Film Festival. Everyone seems moved by that inherent necessity of all people: to dream.

Special Coral of Honor awards were handed at the inauguration to Chilean director Miguel Littin and Mexican Paul Leduc. Littin said the film directors who founded the New Latin American Cinema movement gave the continent’s excluded a “face and voice” by putting them on the screen. “Our cinema is different because our history is different,” he said.

Flautist Josue Borges won first prize for Interpretation, Alejandro Delgado, took second on the trumpet and Junior Alfonso finished third playing guitar. Pianist Jorge Aragon was given a special mention, showing great sensitivity and musical skill.

The 30th Havana Film Festival (Dec. 2-12) starts Tuesday with a full day of films. Once again the landmark Hotel Nacional is the event’s headquarters and the official opening takes place in the evening at the Karl Marx Theater where the Argentine/Korean/Brazilian film “Leonera” will be screened.

When I heard Ariel Perez playing on the Jojazz opening night I asked myself: what mysteries are hiding behind his instrument? Yesterday I found out. Ariel is a student at the Higher Arts Institute and besides he has a love: teaching children.

A huge arts and crafts fair takes place in Havana from December 4-14 with the participation of artisans from 13 countries from Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Jazz is a music of mixes; a blend of sounds, colors, races and temperaments. So is the audience that listens to it in Cuba. The Havana Jojazz Festival has its closing night on Sunday when the awards for the best interpretations and compositions will be announced.

Top Cuban art goes up on the auction block Wednesday November 26th in an annual event held at the landmark Hotel Nacional. The works belong to collectors, institutions and the creators themselves.