From Thursday 26th to Sunday, the Japanese Film Festival will take place in Havana, consisting of three fiction films, an animated feature film and several shorts; it will be followed –from October 2nd to 13th– by the 25th French Film Festival in Cuba.
The Japanese proposals, among which Father of the Milky Way Railway, Tsugaru Lacquer Girl, Under the Open Sky, and Princess Arete stand out, are being screened at the 23 and 12 cinema and at the House of the Festival of New Latin American Cinema; in their original language and with Spanish subtitles.
At a press conference held in the Héctor García Mesa hall of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), Namba Atsushi, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Cuba, referred to the values that unite his people with the Cubans: love for family, the importance given to neighbors and empathy for people from the same community; and defined this cycle as an ideal opportunity to learn about contemporary Japanese cinema.
As part of the Japanese Culture Day, a workshop on the history and audiovisual techniques of the Asian nation is also being held this week in the multifunctional classroom of the ICAIC Animation Studios, taught by director Kayama Shota.
The audiovisual artist stressed to the press the need for both countries to cooperate in this area, and above all to exchange ideas about their ways of doing things.
A LONG-AWAITED FESTIVAL
Antonio Mazón, programming specialist at Cinemática de Cuba, described the French Film Festival as one of the most popular film events on the island – second only, in his opinion, to the Festival of New Latin American Cinema. He noted that in its history it has had up to 100,000 spectators.
Anatomy of a Fall, a multi-award-winning film, is one of the proposals of the 25th French Film Festival in Cuba Photo: Frame from the film
In four cinemas in the capital (23 and 12, Chaplin, Yara and Acapulco), with showings at five in the afternoon, and in theaters in Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Ciego de Ávila, Granma and Santiago de Cuba, 19 films will be shown: 12 premieres and seven tributes.
Mazón highlighted several films on legal issues, such as Anatomy of a Fall and The Two Faces of Justice; the presentation of the young promise of French cinema, the actor Raphael Quenard; and the tribute, among other figures, to Alain Delon. He announced that a major cycle of all his films will be dedicated to the latter in January.
In this 25th edition, in addition to the film proposal, there will be an exhibition of the posters of each festival, a panel discussion on the development of this initiative and other commemorative actions.
Olivier Girón, advisor for Cooperation and Cultural Action at the French Embassy in Cuba, said that the exhibition highlights the values of a film production that highlights cultural diversity, marked by a particular aesthetic and great sensitivity.
