But the Festival, now in its 33rd incarnation, has been losing ground in the cultural life of Havana. In part because the pirated serials, soap operas and Hollywood productions lead many to prefer to stay home to enjoy their DVD player or clandestine satellite dish. Movie-goers are also discouraged by the fact that dozens of neighborhood movie theaters have closed, such as the comfortable Bayamo of my childhood, the majestic Rex and Duplex, or the centrally-located Cuba cinema. But the principal festival of Latin American film has had other setbacks that spring from within, limitations arising from its own structure.
Censorship, works shown only once while others hog the schedule, authors not accepted for having "exceeded" social and political criticism, are some of the incidents that have impoverished the festival. The centralization of decision making, personified in the figure of Alfredo Guevara, imparts an effect on the festival similar to that generated by the excessively vertical government in our country. With such antecedents, the exclusion on this occasion of the film Vinci, from the director Eduardo del Llano, shouldn't even surprise us. In response to the letter of protest from the creator of shorts such as Monte Rouge and Exit, the Festival's senior management could only appeal to thematic considerations. But many of us know what it's really about: Del Llano is an uncomfortable author and his productions are accepted with clenched teeth because they touch the wounds of a reality that the official discourse tries to cover over with make-up. Fortunately, the same alternative networks that broadcast the Brazilian soap operas and reality shows, might also propagate -- briefly -- the rejected film. So, we'll just turn off the lights in our own living rooms, click the remote control and start the projection, a private function where no one can decide what we can see and what we can't.
Yoani's blog, Generation Y, can be read here in English translation.
Translating Cuba is a new compilation blog with Yoani and other Cuban bloggers in English.
Yoani's new book in English, Havana Real, can be ordered here.
Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanifromcuba
We rant about other nations for oppressing their peoples civil right but we sit silently and buy buy buy when it comes to China.
Please we do business with China and they are a worse record than Cuba.
When will we ask for sanctions against China?
Hell how about Vietnam, Afghanistan, Laos or even Cambodia?
We will not, they are a okay in our book and can kill, kill, kill as long as we get things cheap, cheap, cheap.
Eduardo del Llano is a talented film writer well known in Cuba but hardly a "Great filmmaker". In fact this is his first (more than a hour) film as director which really makes the claim ridiculous. The organizers of the event give a plausible reason for the non-inclusion, one that is common for any film festival in the world. This year festival had 1064 films asking to get in and, for obvious space and time reasons, only 445 where accepted for exhibition and from those only 121 for the contest section. Eduardo del Llano film was accepted in a non contesting section of the festival (so actually it would had been exhibited) but he declined as he pretended to be in the contest section. If there was some censorship that was the own censorship of del Llano that refused any other space than the contest space (that of course is his right). More than that, del Llano film is schedule to have a national opening week on January and will be exhibited on major cinemas across the country (where is the politically motivated censorship then ?).
The post from Yoani, as usual, is heavily biased with her own political agenda without much regard for facts or truth. The history of the International Cinema Festival in Havana shows that censorship has never been the tone of the event.
Censorship in Cuba has been reported on extensively, and resulted in European Union sanctions [1] as well as statements of protest from groups, governments, and noted individuals.
Cuba had 21 journalists in prison in 2008, placing it second only to the People's Republic of China, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international NGO.[2] The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks Cuba as the world's fourth worst place for bloggers, stating that "only government officials and people with links to the Communist Party have Web access" and "only pro-government bloggers can post their material on domestic sites that can be easily accessed". Cuba was ranked near the bottom of the Press Freedom Index in 2008.[3] Inter American Press Association reports that "repression against independent journalists, mistreatment of jailed reporters and very strict government surveillance limiting the people’s access to alternative sources of information are continuing".[4] Cuba was named one of the ten most censored countries in the world by the Committee to Protect Journalists.[5]
Books, newspapers, radio channels, television channels, movies and music are heavily censored. Clandestine printing is also highly restricted. Foreign journalists who can work in the country are selected by the government.[5]
Media is operated under the supervision of the Communist Party's Department of Revolutionary Orientation, which "develops and coordinates propaganda strategies".[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Cuba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
he he...... this "expert" must be attending other Cinema festival but certainly not Havana's...... Havana Cinema Festival has always been extremely censured..... like any other aspect in the art and information in Cuba. Artist with ideological-political differences with castrofascism were always isolated and marginalized...... classic example were the members of Buena Vista Social Club, who were domed to ostracism for decades until a US promoter rediscovered them and made a fortune with their geniuses........ of course, the "expert" up there may say that Buena Vista Social Club members were people without cultural history compared with official musicians; and he is right, official musicians could work a lot in spite their lack of talent while the marginalized ones were very talented but with too few work hours.
Castrofascist supporters will always find, in castrofascism’s methods, a justification of the abuses……. If castrofascism hurts a pigeon in the wing, it supporters says “bah!!!..... what’s the problem???!!.... that pigeon can’t even fly !!!
Eduardo del Llano has a blog and continues to reside in Cuba, and to publish his criticisms, some of which are quite sharp. His blog can be read here, including his criticism of the festival's decision not to screen his film: http://eduardodelllano.wordpress.com/
So I have no opinion, favorable or unfavorable, of the festival's decision. However, anyone who has ever worked with an editor, or submitted articles or letter-to-the-editor knows that not everything one submits is necessarily accepted for publication.
Though Eduardo del Llano is critical, he doesn't present himself as a dissident in the sense that he's not completely opposed to everything the Cuban government does. He's a well-established Cuban film-maker whose work has received a broad public release on the island an internationally. You can see this at IMDB where I was reminded of del Llano's many popular Cuban films:
2010 Lisanka (screenplay)
2008 Oscar: The Color of Destiny (writer)
2007 High Tech (short)
2007 Madrigal
2004 Love by Mistake
2001 Playing Swede
1998 Life is to Whistle (writer)
1997 Little Tropikana
1991 Alice in Wondertown (as Grupo Nos-y-Otros)
Thank Goddess there's no censorship in the United States, and that citizens and residents of the United States are free to visit Cuba whenever they like to draw their own conclusions about whether or not the US should end its blockade and normalize relations with the country.
Thank you.
Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
OFICINA NACIONAL DE ESTATISTICAS- Office of National Statistics of Cuba
15.3 - Visitantes por países / Visitors per country of origin. Cuban americans are not counted on the US column or any other column because the Castro government does not recognize other citizenship and they want to charge more money$$$$$$$$$$$)
2003 = 1,905,682 ( US 84,529 )
2004 = 2,048,572 ( US 49,856 )
2005 = 2,319,334 ( US 37,233 )
2006 = 2,220,567 ( US 36,808 )
2007 = 2,152,221 ( US 40,521 )
2008 = 2,348,340 ( US 41,904 )
http://www.one.cu/aec2008/esp/15_tabla_cuadro.htm
REUTERS : Cuban tourism up 10.6 percent, U.S. travel stable
According to industry insiders 375,500 Cubans residing abroad visited in 2010, compared with 296,000 in 2009, with most of the increase attributed to Cuban Americans.
The number of U.S. citizens visiting their government's long-time ideological foe also increased last year by 20 percent, reaching 63,000, according to Cuban government statistics.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-cuba-tourism-idUSTRE76S5V420110729
In Cuba?
Really????
More Coffee.
R/ PRONESE