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• 12 / 19 / 2008

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Rocha was one of the main leaders of the Grupo Cinema Novo and one of the most important figures of the Latin American cinema movement. Among his most well known films are Cabezas Cortadas (Severed Heads) and La edad de la Tierra (The Age of the Earth).

Paula Gaitan said that Rocha went to Cintra with his family to get away and ponder Brazilian cinema, the political situation and all the contradictions of the time.

Gaitan, a teacher at the Park Laje Visual Arts School in Rio de Janeiro, spoke to Granma.

"Glauber and I fortuitously met in Colombia. He had come to intervene on behalf of two jailed Colombian filmmakers. We met by coincidence in the house of a journalist friend of mine. We had a long conversation and then we met again three years later, when he was heading back to Brazil after being in exile, and we married."

What do you remember of the days leading up the premiere of Glauber’s last film, La edad de la Tierra?

"After the premiere of La edad de la Tierra, Glauber wanted to go to a remote place to get an opportunity to think about some of the things that worried him, like the social and political situation and the future of Latin American film. So we decided to go with our children, Ava and Erick Rocha, to Cintra, a Portuguese town hidden almost amongst the clouds, where poets used to go to write.

"During the six months that we were in [Cinta], I dedicated my time to filming Glauber and his environment. He died shortly after our return to Brazil. I had all those images and El Diario de Cintra (Days in Sintra) was born. It is a very sensorial film and maybe for that reason, emotional. I have presented it at several international festivals in countries were there is not that same emotional relation with Glauber like in Cuba or Brazil, and nevertheless, people have been moved by the documentary.

I am very interested in themes related to memory. A little while ago, I finished a documentary on an underground Brazilian artist named Maria Gladis. Currently I am working on the screenplay for my first full-length fiction film, Sobre la Neblina, a co-production between Brazil and Chile."

Paula Gaitan said her time in Havana at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema was"divine." "It was very important to bring my documentary to this festival, a mythical place for Latin American cinema… it also fills me with pride to be back in a country where Glauber had great friends such as Alfredo Guevara and Tomas Gutierrez Alea."

(www.granma.co.cu)