The German philosopher Immanuel Kant became famous for his disquisitions on the “thing in itself” and the “thing for itself”, but his theories lost credibility as he never had an epistemological orgasm by venturing into “the thing for Cubans …”
What is the Thing? Cuban documentary filmmaker Juan Carlos Travieso throws the question to common folks and academics , girls and actresses, philosophers and even a poet who used to be called Antonio Lopez, until he wrote the poem “The Thing” and then nothing was the same.
Seriously … Have you ever wondered what the thing is? Is it a heritage of Cubans? At least its multiple variants are Cuban: the “move” got tough, the daily “up” included in the typical greeting “what’s up?’
Anyway, Travieso honored his surname and gives us a fun approach to this national institution, unfathomable and multifaceted, in the independent documentary ¨Que cosa?¨ that could soon be seen in theaters of Havana.
¨Que cosa? ¨ is the result of an idea born four years ago in Gibara, which took life in the early 2013; it is a searing and plural look to the everyday absurdity in Cuba, indefinite but real, which mystery Travieso tries to unravel in this sort of tribute to the old works by Enrique Colina.
“Colina is an institution and in fact, I drank of those documentaries such as ¨Estatica¨, because I also identify myself with humor,” Travieso said to OnCuba after presenting his “thing” to a small group of friends and buddies.
The “thing” can be an object, a situation, a feeling, a nice ass… it is a term sublimated by Cubans to define single and multiple things, and according to Lopez, “we must hit the thing … until break it “.
That is precisely the theme of this independently produced short film, with the free collaboration of friends and Martin Luther King Memorial, who helped giving birth to this rare bird in Cuban contemporary documentary production.
“It is difficult to get producers, people interested in funding this kind of looks to reality,” Travieso told.
One of the main merits of this audiovisual is its spontaneous character, with just a couple of staging, filmed without the astonished witnesses were aware of it. The soundtrack makes an archaeological trace of the “thing” in Cuban music, which is very in tune with the eloquent images hunted in everyday magical realism of Gibara, Holguín and Havana.
The aforementioned poem ” The Thing” introduces the topic and outlines some of the features of this kind of metaphysics and objective entity rooted in Cuban popular speech. The actor Miguel Moreno, a comedian known as ¨La llave¨ (The Key), reads it using a farce voice that makes you laugh, despite what it is said and displayed could perfectly lead to cry , because heartbreaking “things” are shown…
“The thing horrifies and really scares,” Liuba María sings… “Let’s the seamstress sews “, Van Van tells… “The thing is this mouthful of rum”, a drunk summarizes… And to Juan Carlos Travieso… what is the thing?
He laughed twice and without a better answer he replied: “The thing for me is this documentary …”
