Cuban cinema? A law for the cinematographic industry? Independent or freelance cinema? What’s happening in the Cuban cinematographic industry? Pavel Giroud answers these questions during an interview with OnCuba. Previously we had published Talking about Playing Lecuona with Pavel Giroud.
What’s your opinion about the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC by its acronym in Spanish) and the possibilities it offers to young filmmakers?
ICAIC has moved from stagnation to uncertainty. There is a new leadership by a man that has grown within the institution and therefore there is an affectionate relationship with the building, its dwellers and the cinema; however, this is still a state-owned organization and it is subject to the state’s norms and regulations. So far there are positive signs, he is open for dialogue, and at least we can be heard. I like that idea of doors being open, but I don’t agree with the so-called possibilities. During the past decade the Institute has opened doors because it had to. The founding Cuban filmmakers of ICAIC are most gone. Some have passed away, others are living abroad and many just gave up. The few that are still there are suffering from the uncertainty I mentioned before. It is not enough to open doors if there are limits for your energy and eagerness for development as creators, if your movies are not displayed, if there are still suspicious people that do not approve of your methods because they threaten the ruling principles of the Institute. A 20-year old wants to dismantle what I dismantled during my 20’s.
Leaving aside the economic aspect, which are the main difficulties Cuban filmmakers are facing when shooting?
Whenever you think about making movies, you think about the shooting and the real process goes far beyond that. From experience, I believe that the greatest problem a Cuban filmmaker faces (no matter if his young or not) is the lack of connection with the rest of the world. I recently said in a meeting that if at some point such disconnection was metaphorical, today it is real. I’m talking about internet access. Why? Registration for festivals is online; the evaluation process of the pieces to be accepted in these festivals is also online; that is you upload your material in Vimeo with a keyword and they are able to see it; the work with sound technicians and musicians, etc. is made through Webtranfers, Dropbox, ect. and thus, you save in travels and time; meetings are made through Skype. I can mention an infinite number of steps in this process where it is vital to be online at the necessary connection speed. Imagine joining this system in a country when sending a 1MB image through email is really hard.
How would you evaluate ICAIC´s current production mechanisms and what would you suggest the Institute taking into account your experience and perspectives?
In my opinion these are old-fashioned and inefficient mechanisms. I would suggest them to stop producing and focus on the real function of an institute. A single floor of the whole building will be enough and the rest of it could be rented to emerging production agencies or to set classrooms for training. A considerable number of producers, directors, scriptwriters, editors and sound technicians have been trained. Now they need to train a new generation of publicists, sales agents and distributors.
What do you think the Cuban cinematographic industry is missing?
It is missing three things: health, money and love.
Are you of the opinion that it is time to have a new Cuban cinematographic industry?
Indeed, it is time for new films, new criticism, new publications, new production structures, new movies, new exhibition criteria and new technology in every sector of the industry.
Independent cinema in Cuba, a law for the cinematographic industry, freelance cinema… What do you think of all this?
I’ve been working on this with other colleagues, but I drifted away for two main reasons. The first one is because being caught up in two major productions takes all my time. The other one is because we are disciplined after all. There are some claims that are not achieved through the ¨corresponding channels¨ mostly when there are the same traffic agents that have it all mixed up. We need a law for the cinematographic industry; the lack of it has caused all this mess. There has been and will always be independent cinema, that’s the logic answer and I challenge production and consumption under established laws. Today what’s not ICAIC’s or the Cuban Radio and Television Institute’s (ICRT by its acronym in Spanish) is independent by right. Freelance cinema is an illusion and not only in Cuba. There are too many impassable obstacles in the chain, which as creators we cannot change.
To what extent do you consider the new technologies are changing audiovisual production in Cuba?
What do we mean by new technologies today? a high-quality handycam and a PC at home for editing? Hard-drives instead of reels? That revolution took place 15 years ago in my beginnings. Now we are far behind. Technology and language always interact fluidly. One conditions the other organically. The Sundance festival from a couple of years now, with its production fund, has not included a single traditional movie in its awarded lists. All of them have been trasnmedia projects, where cinematographic and literary narrations coexists promiscuously with videogames and network links, where even the audience interacts in situ with the fate of the characters, something Cubans cannot aim at, at least from their place of origin. New technology is a term we should not use in Cuba unless we are talking about future aspirations.
Do you think that filmmakers from your generation are true transgressors and iconoclasts or is it just a legend some people have elaborated on the young Cuban cinema?
I haven’t heard any of that. I believe that’s a bit excessive. I belong to the transit generation. There was a fluid processof analogical and digital thinking and as I said before, in that flow of technology and language there was a rupture with what used to be, which at the same time had a bearing on our position. I mean that by being more autonomous for having available the necessary means we became irreverent when making aesthetic decisions and taking political stands because we were committed with ourselves. Most of us can take a camera, edit, write music, and the like. We were trained in the field; we learned to do things by doing them. We managed to fill the Chaplin to watch the work of rookies with primitive tools. We initiated that path not leaving behind antecedents like those forged at the Hermanos Saiz Association some years earlier and their antecedents with the film-club federation. It is comforting to be part of the prow of a ship that is visiting important harbors with high-quality films.
Which are the greatest challenges for your generation of filmmakers?
We got tired. I have been close to going back to painting quietly at home. I haven’t had any ideas beyond the sketch for after El Acompañante. There are days I say to myself that this is the last one but I constantly repeat to myself that I have to face it as it were my first.
You have had the chance to travel the world with your films and to get in touch with other kinds of cinema. What’s your appraisal of the insertion of the Cuban cinema in the international scenario?
I read an article in The New Herald as a result of my statements for receiving an award at the coproduction forum of the San Sebastian Festival that said that one of my objectives with the presentation of the project El Acompañante before so many producers, sales agents and distributors, was to invite them to take a look at Cuba, where there were things going on. As a result, journalist Alejandro Diaz wrote an interesting article on how hard it is to call someone’s attention from Cuba. It is not enough to be Cuban and be cursed, you have to make good films and know how to sail in the harsh waters of markets and distribution. It was an analysis about the absence of Cuban films in top level festivals. That article came to me in an email from an active movie buff that writes to me quite often and this time he made an outline no other researcher has done, on the presence of Cuban films in top level festivals ever since Fresa y Chocolate, and it is very enlightening. He states that Canes hasn’t seen a Cuban film since Nada and Entre ciclones, both from the same period and the same French producer. Berlin hadn’t seen one since Fresa y Chocolate, until now with La piscina, manipulated even by its very own producer ICAIC. Amor Vertical visited Toronto and a few years went by until the presentation of La edad de la peseta and then another five years until Juan de los muertos. There hasn’t been a Cuban film in Venice since La era de oro by Humberto Solas. San Sebastian was inaugurated with Suite Habana and they it displayed Omerta, out of contest. Sundance recently took Boleto al Paraiso in after I don’t know how long of Cuban absence. I have already put these data over the table in other interviews because I believe all that perfectly sums up our position in the universe.
What topics you find more seducing these days as a filmmaker?
Today there is one thing and tomorrow there is a different one. I see a story in practically anything. A few days ago I spent about two hours trying to play Sugar Man with my guitar. Two hours. That’s the length of a movie. If I had placed a camera in front of me capturing my mistakes and my incoming calls, anything that was happening while I was trying to play the song, I could have had a real time movie with an end and everything because I did succeed.
