Helen's Blog /

Gibara, Cuba.

Over a Hundred Films Will Compete at the International Non-Budget Movie Festival. As always, the Festival will be held at the small, beautiful northeastern city of Gibara.

The demise of the event's President, Humberto Solás, and the hurricane that devastated the venue, the city of Gibara, did not prevent the celebration of the Festival.

Humberto Solas.

This will be a great Festival, one more time, said at a press conference Sergio Benvenuto, director of the Humberto Solás International Non-Budget Movie Festival, to be held shortly, on 13-19 April, in its seventh edition at its usual venue, the beautiful seaside city of Gibara, located in the eastern province of Holguín.

Despite the hurricanes that last year devastated the small city in Cuba's northeastern region and the sudden death of filmmaker Humberto Solás (Lucía), who was the creator and President of the event, the Non-Budget Festival reaches its seventh edition, this time named after its main promoter, thanks to the valuable support of a group of collaborators, artists and national and international institutions.

The opening gala to commence the event will be dedicated to the figure of Humberto Solás, with the screening of one of his films, Un día de noviembre [A Day in November], an important movie in the late filmmaker's career, who was recognized as one of the most significant movie directors, not only in Cuba but also in Latin America.

In this seventh edition, the Festival will dedicate its main tribute to Cuban filmmaker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Titón), thus materializing a wish expressed by Solás when alive. To that end, documentary Titón: de La Habana a Guantanamera will be screened made by Mirtha Ibarra, actress and widow of the director of Cuban film Fresa y Chocolate [Strawberry and Chocolate], one of many films of the famed movie director. This tribute to Gutiérrez Alea, who was also a founder of ICAIC [Cuban Institute for Movie Art and Industry], will also cover the celebrations on the 50th anniversary of such institution.

Of a total of 266 pieces selected to participate in the 7th Festival, Cuba and Argentina will be the most represented countries in the event's official section, which includes 112 films in contest for the awards and a non-competitive side show with 76 works.

The official selection of the movies in contest has been divided into three categories: Model, Projects in Progress and Unpublished Scripts for Fiction Features, Documentaries, Experimental Works and Video Art.

In the course of the Festival, the panel of judges will grant 13 awards with aid packages to assist production, promotion and distribution. Once again, the Grand Prize for Best Fiction Feature Film in the Festival will include the equivalent of CUC 5,000 on technology, audiovisual materials, subtitles and printing of copies on 35 mm or DVD.

During the Festival, several theoretical meetings will be held, as spaces where key issues are discussed in connection with the contemporary audiovisual world. One outstanding element is the Main Forum: Towards a Non-Budget Cinema That is Less Non-Budget: Towards Optimum Making and Post-Production and with Greater Possibilities for Distribution.

As has been shown in every edition, the Festival, turned into the Island's cultural hub, will once again gather a large number of Cuba's artistic avant-gardism. Every night, there will be concerts with musicians from various genres and photographic exhibits will be opened, one of which is on the figure of Solás. There will also be an exhibit on sculptures by British Peter Nadin and Cuban Osneldo García.

The 7th Festival will be the first time the event is held without the presence of its creator, Humberto Solás, who was the President and main promoter of each of the previous editions, turning the Gibara Festival into an outstanding space of influence in the filmmaking and cultural spectrum of Cuba and the world.

As the Manifest of the Event stated, Non-Budget Cinema does not mean cinema devoid of ideas or artistic quality. It refers to a type of cinema of restricted economic possibilities, done in less developed countries or in those around them, as well as within the leading societies at the economic-cultural level, either as part of official production programs or through independent or alternative cinema.

The International Non-Budget Movie Festival relies on the key support of the Cuban Institute for Movie Art and Industry (ICAIC), the Ministry of Culture of Cuba, the Provincial Government of Holguín Province and the City of Gibara, among other institutions.

*The author is a Cubanow staff writer.

*Translated by Angel Ramón Milán Dobson.