A festival which showcases Cuban cinema and culture in Glasgow is to head out on tour and bring a taste of Havana to the Small Isles.
The Havana Glasgow Film Festival (HGFF) invites audiences to connect with Cuban cinema and culture with a wealth of Cuban films past and present, including rare gems from the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC).
The festival also celebrates the special connection between the cities of Havana and Glasgow and reflects on the issues relevant to both cities which, despite being separated by a distance of over 4,000 miles, have been twinned since 2002.
HGFF is co-curated by Scottish filmmaker Eirene Houston in Glasgow and Cuban filmmaker and writer Hugo Rivalta in Havana. Both met whilst Eirene was teaching screenwriting at the EICTV (Cuban Film School).
READ MORE: Highlander reboot with Henry Cavill to be shot in Scotland
Since 2015, the festival has welcomed some of Cuba’s most famous actors, directors and cultural figures to Glasgow such as Mirtha Ibarra, Luis Alberto García, Vladimir Cruz and Fernando Pérez as well as DJ Cami Layé Okún, photographer and documentarist Roberto Chile - who served as staff photographer for Fidel Castro from 1984-2006 - and Dr Aleida Guevara March, the eldest daughter of Che Guevara.
Thanks to a unique partnership with Visit Small Isles Films, Screen Argyll, Screen Scotland and local partners, the festival is visiting Rum, Canna, Eigg and Muck later this month.
The tour - which will stop off Rum Village Hall, Eigg Village Hall, Muck Village Hall and The Shearing Shed in Canna - will see the festival run family-friendly afternoon and adult evening events with Cuban films and documentaries, salsa dancing, talks, cocktails and Cuban food.
Screenings include Mi Primera Tarea / My First Task, a new documentary draws on Cuban troubadour Silvio Rodríguez's recollections of Cuba's 1961 literacy campaign, and Por Primera Vez/For the First Time, a 1967 Cuban documentary short film that chronicles the events of April 12, 1967 in the village of Los Munos where a mobile cinema truck showed the villagers moving pictures for the first time.
The Small Isles tour will be hosted by HGFF co-directors Eirene Houston and Hugo Rivalta and Glasgow-based Cuban filmmaker Dani Acosta, whose award-winning documentary Cuban Bees: The Organic Revolution, about the sustainable, organic apiculture methods used by Cuban beekeepers, will also be screening.
Speaking to The Herald, HGFF co-director Eirene Houston said: “We are really excited to be taking the festival to the Small Isles. We are keen to see what the islands can learn from Cuba and what Cuba can learn from the islands. We want to share that and take that information back to Cuba.
“I’m sure people in Cuba will be really interested to know more about the history of Eigg for example and how islanders there are working so hard to be self-sufficient for its energy needs. Cuba also has a strong sense of community and so do the islands.
“The visit to Rum, Canna, Eigg and Muck will also mark the first time festival co-director Hugo will have the chance to visit any of the Scottish islands and I’m sure he’ll be blown away.”
Meanwhile, this month will also see HGFF host a special summer event at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts.
Cuba Now! will see Cuban filmmaker, writer and political satirist Eduardo del Llano Rodriguez joined in conversation with David Archibald, Professor of Political Cinemas at the University of Glasgow and member of The Tenementals, a band of academics and musicians who came together to delve into the history of Glasgow through the power of music.
The conversation will be followed by a screening of three of Del Llano’s short films, and a party into the wee small hours curated by city promoter A Cut Above Glasgow and Glasgow-based German-Colombian DJ más allá.
For more information, visit the HGFF website at https://hgfilmfest.com/
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel