The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) will be 55 years old this March 24. One of the highlights of the celebration will be the delivery of the National Film Award to director Juan Carlos Tabio.
We have to thank Tabío, if someone ignores it, some cult films, as he was co-director of “Strawberry and Chocolate” and “Guantanamera” with Tomas Gutierrez Alea (Titon) and directed “Se permuta” and “Plaff or too afraid of life”.
He also has a vast work as a documentary and short movies filmmaker, perhaps the most famous the surrealist “Dolly back” (1986).
After participating in the collective project “Seven Days in Havana” Tabío spends much time at home, where he agreed to answer us some questions via e-mail. Here it going in Take One …
Why did you get involved in movies? How did you start?
In 1961 I was studying in one of the many scholarships that existed at that time. I was expelled from the fellowship and I was “in the air,” I was 17 and doing nothing. When this, the chief of staff of Alfredo Guevara was the daughter of my father’s best friend, and like all vessels are communicating, I started working in the ICAIC.
I started doing odd jobs as production, director and camera assistant. In 63 I was an assistant to cameraman and great friend of mine, Luis García. We were doing a documentary on Sergio Giralt , went to Matanzas to film something I don’t remember. We came; I was taking out of the car all camera equipment: 2 tripods, suitcase of lenses, filters, clapperboard, in short, everything but the camera we had forgotten in Havana. I am not sure why they didn’t kick me out of ICAIC; must be that at that time had a blind faith in youth.
Anyway, I got proposed directing a documentary. “Danger” was called , an educational documentary about traffic signs in a sequence that appeared with the angels of some graves in the cemetery . Shortly after releasing the documentary, Titon approaches me one day and tells me he had really liked the sequence of the angels and asked me for permission to repeat it in “Death of a Bureaucrat”. You can imagine the compliment that meant to me. That’s how Titón and I began a conversation that lasted over 30 years. Someday we will resume it…
Then I shot a couple of bad documentaries that immediately swelled the voluminous book of oblivion. That’s when I enter the military service. I spent about two years in the Navy and a year and a half in the UMAP (well I think someone took me there for forgetting the camera).
When I was discharged I could not return to ICAIC because a new provision didn’t allow returning to the same workplace. But the father of a recruit my companion in the service was a Ministry of Labor official and somehow he managed to get the ICAIC to reinstate me. So, both my entering and my return to the cinema were marked by chance and for a friend.
Who were your references in cinema?
In the 60s and 70s I saw a lot of films. I used to enjoy the daily runs at the Cinematheque.! Also, at that time Julio García Espinosa organized two weekly debates on movies. They meant a lot to me, “Battleship Potemkin”; Chaplin, “The 400 Blows”, Buster Keaton, Wajda, “Germany Year 0” Czech film prior to the tanks in 68 (Forman, the Chitílova, Passer, Menzel; Papucheck) and Buñuel, always Buñuel.
At that time “The Movie” was European. I remember the shock among us when we saw “Hiroshima mon amour”. Today is just Hollywood, with that extra strength.
What movies are you enjoying now?
Well, now , as I’m deaf ( like Buñuel ) I have a hard time to see ( hear) movies without subtitles.
There is always talk of Dolly back , Se permuta, Plaff or Strawberry and Chocolate Do you feel that some of your works did not receive the attention they deserved ?
Look, I think it is impossible to judge one’s own work . I don’t know what deserves or not. Last year I read the article “The case of Plaff ( or too afraid of life ) ” by Guy Baron, appeared in ” Cuban Cinema ” from January to March 2012, I learned many things the film said. With a movie, you never know the past that awaits you.
There are movies that when they are released, cause a stir and eventually nobody remembers them, others the opposite. Look for “I Am Cuba” from Kalatosov . For 30 years, many considered it excessive and even crazy. Coppola sees it and marvels. It turns out that “I am Cuba” is a film of “cult”.
Which actors did you feel better working with?
With all . The good thing would be to ask them how they felt about working with me.
How was it working with Titon in his last two films ? Why did you decide to co – direct?
During the pre – filming of ” Strawberry and Chocolate” , doctors announced Titón he had to undergo a new surgery that would take place within the shooting schedule . He did not want to postpone the shoot and suggested me to co-direct the movie “As a sonata at four hands “he said smiling. I was aware of many aspects of the film (casting, locations, etc.), since he began working with the script by Senel Paz. Even I had two meetings to discuss the script with him and Senel . All this, of course, happened before I knew that I would co-direct shortly after the film. I start working, and as co-director at the beginning of the tests, and so on until the end, until the adoption of the first copy.
What to say…? It was an extraordinary experience in every way.
How does it feel to be National Film Award?
I am eternally grateful to cultural organizations who nominated me, and of course, to the jury that awarded me the prize. It also helps that these are things that the almanac drops…
Photo taken from El Universal
