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• Arts and Culture
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• 11 / 21 / 2008

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Ivan Giroud, the director of the exhibition-competition- whose president is Alfredo Guevara- stated this in a recent dialogue with journalists. He has already spent fifteen years in those functions and he believes it is time to start teaching those who should take into their own hands to be the substitutes.

We are not talking about a far away hope, but in fact, it has already started to be real. The Industria sector, inaugurated this year aiming to stay on, will be directed by a young graduate from Movie and Television School, he said.

His name is Inti Herrera and he belongs to a family with a movie lineage. His father is the moviemaker Manuel Herrera and his mother, the actress Eslinda Núñez, one of the stars of Lucía, the unforgettable movie by the already deceased Humberto Solás.

He adquiered his vocation by osmosis and he is considered one of the youngest and most promising producers of the so called independent cinema in our country.

Giroud looms back and remembers the birth of the New Latin American Movie Festival. When we started, we were the only ones; he recalls with a slight tone of nostalgia, moviemakers came with their movies in boxes under their arms.

Today festivals have been multiplied and there are almost as many in the world as there are days in a year, he jokes.

In his opinion, one of the merits of the Havana Festival is the label of identity that distinguishes it and has allowed it to face risks, to survive even in the hard times of the 1990s’ when the economy of our country was very poor.

That ability to resists, he thinks, has allowed it to reach this maturity.

It is also a popular festival, with a deep massive call. There are generations that have grown up with it, they wait for it eagerly every year and can not imagine their lives without it knocking on their door every December, he added.

For the movie makers, to exhibit their movies in Havana is always a goal and they fill disappointed when they are not able to do so, he points out. The city itself adds a charming point with its air and the people that live in it.

From the Havana competition surged the New Latin American Movie Festival Foundation, and among the founders there is the Colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez, a constant presence every December in Havana, where he teaches a script workshop.

Our festival holds a close relationship with many others and especially with the San Antonio de los Baños School, where young people from several Latin American countries are training in the art and technique of movie making.

Far from being satisfied with these results, Giroud is categorical when he states: We still have much to do, I would rather say, we still have almost everything left to do.

(Cubarte)