4th International Low Budget Film Festival in Gibara
TXT: YOSS PHOTO: YURO

In 2003 Humberto Solás and Sergio Benvenuto thought they might try to put on a "poor" cinema event. There were skeptics. Another international film festival? In addition to the Latin American one? The director of Cecilia and El siglo de las luces doing “poor” cinema?
And there were even more doubts about the venue. Gibara, in Holguín is the birthplace of writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and where Solás shot Lucía in the 1960’s, as well as the final scenes of Miel para Oshún.
But it’s not exactly famous for its cultural or cinema tradition.
Would foreign filmmakers send their work to a tiny Cuban town far from glamorous Havana? Wouldn’t the locals be a little in the dark about the mostly unknown directors?
Solás believed in Gibara. It seems crazy, but they were deeply in love with the idea and got support from the Cuban Institute of Film Arts and Industry, People’s Power Municipal and Provincial Assemblies, the Ministry of Culture, international sponsors and the likes.
And in a few years the Gibara Low Budget Film Fest has become a reality: an international contest and exhibition that attracts cinema that is quite different from mainstream Hollywood. Poor budgets but rich ideas.
This fourth edition drew work from Latin America, Europe and Africa, and the opening was full of filmmakers, organizing committee members, Omar González, president of ICAIC and Abel Prieto, Minister of Culture.
From April 17-23, morning to night, the local crowd and visitors filled the Jibá cinema, municipal Casa de Cultura and Frexes and Martí cinemas in Holguín...

+ information pág. 154-157 The H Book 2007 08