Helen's Blog /

The prolific Cuban filmmaker, Humberto Solás, founder and conceptor of the Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre, inaugurated at the end of the year 2000, in the picturesque port of Gibara, CUBA, which has matured to become an original and successful film event for young talents, passed away on September 18th, in his residence in Miraflores, Havana, after a short bout with cancer.

One of Solas' colleagues described the cause of his death as "sadness from seeing CUBA develop in a way he would not have liked it to".

At the peak of his creative powers, Humberto Solas was getting the 7th edition of the Cine Pobre Festival ready and was about to launch the First Cinema Pobre Thematic Expo - 1er Muestra Tematica del Cine Pobre - to take place in November in the city of Cienfuegos.

This task will be continued with pride and loving attention by his colleagues and his nephew Sergio Benvenuto Solas, director of the Festival del Cine Pobre.

Two of his most recent features, filmed with very low budgets : Miel para Oshún¨ (2001) y ¨Barrio Cuba¨ (2005), will be highlighted at the event, as exemplary filmmaking with low resources.

Humberto Solas devoted himself to reviving an 'author's cinema', and was an inspiration for filmmakers in Latin America, as one of the founders of the 'Cinema Nueva' of that continent. And this, after achieving fame for his earlier more fastidious creations at Cine Cubano renowned for their baroque classicism and historical superproductions (Lucía, 1968; Cecilia, 1982; El Siglo de las Luces, 1990).

The Festival Solas created - Cine Pobre de Humberto Solás, will henceforth bear his name in tribute, and strive to continue the immense ethical challenge of consolidating and paving the way, in a pragmatic manner, towards multiple expressions of professional and cinematographic nature in Cuba, as well as in countries outside the island.

As of today, the action will be called ¨ Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre de Humberto Solás¨.