Forty years ago, when it premiered in Cuban cinemas in 1984 The birds shooting the shotgun, the first fiction feature film by Rolando Díaz, began with this successful comedy — winner of 14 international awards, including the Catalina de Oro at the XXIV International Film Festival of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, and a Choral at the VI Festival of New Latin American Cinema from Havana, Cuba—one of the most sincere and peculiar Latin American cinematic adventures. Already on that date he had directed Round and comes in a square box (1980), a short about the National Baseball Series considered a cult piece of Cuban sports documentary film, and gained experience within the team of the ICAIC News Latin American under the general direction of Santiago Álvarez—included by UNESCO in its Memory of the World list, where he would direct more than 80 editions.
His training as a documentary filmmaker is key to his unique filmography, an auteur cinema supported by documentary resources, being a precursor in genres such as docudrama or even mockumentarylike in If you understood me (1999), special mention at the New York Latin American Film Festival and considered the first Cuban independent film: a false audition for a musical film with black actresses that is an extraordinary testimony of racism, the crisis of the Cuban sociopolitical system of the nineties and the growing social dissatisfaction on the island.
Living in Spain since 1994, first in the Canary Islands and then in Valencia, Rolando Díaz is possibly the Cuban filmmaker trained on the payroll of the official Cuban Institute of Art and the Cinematographic Industry (ICAIC) with the largest independent production, playing the clapperboard since that date in more than ten independently financed feature films, among which stand out Melodrama (nineteen ninety five), Life according to Ophelia (2007), The paths of Aissa (2013) which received eight nominations for the 2014 Goya Awards? and An elephant on a spider’s web (2022).
Among the most prominent Cuban filmmakers, he is also a pioneer in bringing racial themes, machismo, intergenerational tensions or the drama of aging and death to celluloid with a poetic, emotional and humorous prism. As a curious fact, it is unlikely that there is a filmmaker who has consistently reflected senescence in his work like Rolando Díaz, who began with Birds…going by The life is pink (1989), Rústico’s long journey (1993), Cuban-Canarian co-production nominated for the Goya, Closeness (2004) and ending with An elephant on a spider’s web (2022), whose protagonist is a lucid 109-year-old woman.
Your new production Goodbye, Cuba Perhaps ‘the penultimate’, if we believe a tireless director who has the merit of having produced an extensive filmography outside of Cuba, with a small budget, without institutional protection and without guarantees of exhibiting them to his natural audience? is based on true stories of Cubans who have left the island in the mass exodus of recent years and features a cast of formidable young Cuban actors such as Yuliet Cruz, Betiza Bismark, Grisell Monzón and Frank Moreno. The cinematography is by Alain López and the original music by Edesio Alejandro. Those who wish to collaborate with this effort can do so through the crowdfunding that its filmmakers have created for this purpose.
From the Canary Islands, where he had to move in the middle of filming Goodbye, Cubato teach a film laboratory, Rolando Díaz explained his project and talked about his career.
This year marks 40 years since your film debut with The birds shooting the shotgun (1984), which is perhaps your most emblematic and remembered film. What was the greatest challenge and the greatest satisfaction of that debut film?
For me, The Birds Shooting the Shotgun is a fundamental film, I would be ungrateful if I forgot it, it was my debut film, and it is a lie to say that one rejects success. The Birds was a success, I don’t think it is my best film in cinematographic terms, but it gave me a lot of satisfaction, it is a film that I am very fond of. I shot it in group conditions and wonderful equipment, I will never forget that. On the other hand, he won many awards and recognitions, even in London, Europe, Africa, in America, especially in Latin America… and that is comforting. It is an unforgettable film, I am very clear about it and it occupies a place in my heart.
The biggest challenge I had was directing eminent actors, in what for me was my first film. That was the most complex. Directing Reinaldo Miravalles, who is a monster of international acting, directing Consuelo Vidal who had not made films for a long time, but was delighted to make the film… and directing Silvia Plana, an actress with an enormous career. That was quite a challenge. I even have curious anecdotes… especially with Miravalles, who was distrustful of putting himself in the hands of a young director. But everything ended well, Reinaldo continued to be a great friend of mine on a personal level. The rest is wonderful: Paulito Martínez as a director of photography is delightful; and the rest of the team, I don’t want to forget anyone: Mayra Vilasís, my assistant, and Germinal Hernández on sound… who have already passed away… A very beautiful film surrounded by very beautiful people. I am very happy to have done it, it honestly had a great impact on me and I will always be grateful to it.
What do you think it will contribute? Goodbye, Cuba to your filmography? What do you hope to convey to the viewer?
Goodbye, Cuba It is a film that comes from the heart, inspired by the last exodus in which more than 600 thousand Cubans have left the island in just two years. The island is in a critical situation, beyond ideology, although because of it, it must always be said. It is a film that tries to relate the feeling of the people who have said goodbye to Cuba and have been forced to live outside the country. It does not distinguish between those who returned, there is even a character who could not bear to live abroad and returned; In reality it has to do with the majority of people who left in a, let’s say, exceptional way, but who represent all the Cubans who have left.
When I say exceptional, I say that there will be people who have left Cuba in very difficult, very complex conditions, that is what the plot is about. It is not a documentary, therefore, these testimonies are the raw material that a theater director uses to make a work of the same name. That work is the driving element of the film. She, with two actors, tries to carry out the film, she stumbles over many things, especially her arrogance, her passion, her desire to fulfill. I am tremendously lucky to have the actress Yuliet Cruz in the lead role, and with Betiza Bismark, Grisell Monzón and Frank Moreno. I am very happy with my cast. It is a fiction film that has very important documentary elements. It is the story of all of us who have left. Although I am referring to a more recent exodus. There is only one case from the 90s, the rest are more contemporary. Without a doubt it is a tribute to all of us who have left.
How is it inserted Goodbye, Cuba in your filmography?
I think that Goodbye, Cuba It’s a good farewell to cinema for me. I turn 77 in August, I feel good, I think I’m strong for this age, but you never know… you’re already at a dangerous age. If it were the last one that’s fine, I’m happy. I have a comedy project that is moving forward, which I also believe a lot in, I think it is very nice, and I would really like to be able to make a comedy where I can laugh at many things that I want to laugh at, and that also has the theme of Cuba and Spain, and it has to do with all of us who have left the island as well, but as pure fiction and in a comedy style. In Goodbye, Cuba People will laugh at some point, no doubt, but it is a tougher movie. This is a film that I really want to make and I hope it means a lot to me. What will happen with the film is very difficult to predict. We are putting the greatest love in the world, but the cinema is a surprise. It is an intense topic, I am going to try to make it go beyond Cuba, beyond the Cubans, although it is dedicated and directed to them in the first place. My ambition, the ambition of an artist is for his work to be more universal—for a filmmaker I would say, which is what I consider myself, artist is a very serious word.
What three of your films do you think a viewer should not miss?
I think that a viewer who is interested in my cinema should see The birds shooting the shotgun, especially before it disappears, I don’t know what condition the negatives and prints of our films are in… I have no information if they are still in condition to be exhibited. Maybe there are some DVD copies out there. I would like people to see Birds, which was known as an initial film. Afterwards it is unforgettable for me If you understood mea film that was a watershed, then Melodrama, which like the previous one was censored in Cuba, suffered a lot but did well, it is a comedy that I really like. I have said three but I am very interested in what I call the trilogy of sadness that I did after the death of my wife Ileana: The paths of Aissa, Absence dossier and An elephant on a spider’s web.
You have made a film work for thirty years, based in the diaspora, as a Cuban-Spanish: who is your target audience? Has producing for a more international audience and accessing your natural audience in an indirect or more eventful way had any aesthetic impact?
I have already made more films outside of Cuba than inside, that is an interesting fact. At this stage of the platforms, small cinema, non-industrial cinema, which does not have Hollywood or national support, has many difficulties in reaching the big screens, which is why they are the streaming the most interesting destination to screen your film. But it also depends on what film and what spaces. All films cannot be written in the same way, each one has a different audience and different treatments.
My films have basically been distributed on platforms, sometimes in cinema, sometimes on TV; they have been exhibited at festivals; Various countries have bought them… In the case of Goodbye, Cuba, I have an initial objective which is the Cuban community, both abroad and inside. I want them to be able to see that movie, the emphasis is not on the movie, but on the emotions. Let’s say that it is inevitably a political film but it is not a film of political slogans. It is a film of feelings and passions. We do not know its fate, I think it may be the platforms that provide the space so that our cinema can be exhibited.
