{"id":233154,"date":"2021-01-16T08:51:50","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T13:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=233154"},"modified":"2021-01-16T08:51:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T13:51:50","slug":"enrique-pineda-barnet-a-renaissance-man-in-cuban-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba\/enrique-pineda-barnet-a-renaissance-man-in-cuban-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Enrique Pineda Barnet: a Renaissance man in Cuban culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enrique Pineda Barnet died this Monday at the age of 87. Following his passing, I read on a friend\u2019s Facebook profile that Barnet was an island within an island. The phrase has not been out of my head. I think that definition faithfully portrayed a part of the filmmaker\u2019s life and that particular cinematographic look at Cuba that he never lost, as he never lost the joy of being part of the miracle of life and of cinematographic creation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enrique was a precocious child before becoming a great filmmaker. He was born in 1933 and when he was only five years old, he played the character of the black in the Cuban vernacular theater. Years later he made his first foray as a radio actor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those first experiences formed the multifaceted personality of a young man who over time became a Renaissance man in Cuban culture. He ventured into journalism, literature (he won the Alfonso Hern\u00e1ndez Cata National Prize for Literature in 1953 for his short story \u201cY m\u00e1s all\u00e1 la brisa\u201d), locution, he was one of the founders of the influential Nuestra Tiempo Cultural Society and one of the first volunteer teachers to climb the Sierra Maestra. In his journalistic work, he showed deep acuteness and excellent narrative ability, attributes with which he established himself since early on in Cuban journalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

In cinema he found the definitive space to guide that fervor for creation that defined the master lines of his future work. He entered the Cuban Institute of Cinema Arts and Industry at the beginning of the 1960s and in 1963 he premiered the work <\/span>Giselle<\/span><\/i>, with which he surprised even the most seasoned by his extreme sensitivity, his ability to be aware of even the smallest detail and, above all, by anticipating his time. Viewing again this film today, one will be able to realize that it summarizes contemporary visions on all four sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barnet\u2019s biography is from a movie. I don\u2019t know exactly why (but perhaps I can guess) both his life and part of his work are not fully known by the Cuban public. He has been relegated to the cloister of specialists.<\/span><\/p>\n

His work as a scriptwriter in <\/span>Soy Cuba<\/span><\/i>, that ambitious and surprising co-production between Cuba and the former Soviet Union, appears as a primary mark in the obligatory reference career in Latin American cinema, which, although after its premiere in 1964 did not awaken the best applause from a segment of specialized critics of the time, was recognized decades later as a classic in film history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pineda Barnet himself, a demanding filmmaker, was not satisfied either with the final result of the work or with the belated accolades. But those who knew him closely know that it was not easy to discover him in excessive exaltation or conformism. He even took some distance from those from whom he only heard menial flattery or praise where he expected questioning or criticism. That is why he also found an oasis of happiness and hope when some creative approaches were suggested or questioned during the process of making some of his films.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enrique Pineda Barnet: \u201cCuando me discuten me fascina\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n