Experts Choose Films for 4th Caribbean Showcase

A group of prominent A group of prominent Caribbean film personalities are working in the selection of films to be shown in the 4th Traveling Caribbean Film Showcase.




The executive director of the Film Company of Trinidad and Tobago, Carla Foderingham, Haitian Frantz Voltaire, the Festival director of Trinidad and Tobago, Paddingon Bruce, the director of the cultural complex of Curacao, Norman de Palm and Cuban Rigoberto Lopez, chairman of the initiative, are the members of the prestigious jury that is working hard since last Monday.

The experts undertook the selection process of works of fiction, documentary, short film and animation, which, according to the tender, "express authentic content about culture, history and social problems of countries in the area." The next edition of the exhibition focuses on films about the realities and challenges of immigrants in the region and the diaspora.

The event, which was founded in 2007, is considered the most significant regional action for the promotion of cinema and audiovisuals in the Caribbean region and all over the world.

Alicia Feels Satisfied with Recent U.S. Tour

Alicia Alonso, director of the Cuban National Ballet (BNC), said to be very satisfied with the company’s recent tour of the United States were they received standing ovations by the public in all their performances.

She said: "We lived very moving moments, particularly when we heard shoutings of Long Live Cuba."

The Cuban prima ballerina assoluta showed to the media to be visibly proud of being the director of the company ranked among the best ones of the world.
The tour, which started from May 31 to June 26, included performances in Washington, New York and Los Angeles for a total of 22 with the theaters packed. The company also led five general rehearsals that were open to the public.

Pedro Simon, director of the National Museum of Dance, said the lead dancers –some renowned and others new–, received very good reviews highlighting their mastership of the classic language and their technical virtuosity. “We were received with astonishment and admiration,” he said.Mr. Simon said the company’s soloists, lead dancers and corps de ballet were also praised because of their artistic awareness.

Rutas y Andares returns for the Cuban family

An initiative by the Cuban City Historian Office, called Rutas y Andares (routes and promenades), which promotes the patrimony of Havana, will be re-opened for the Cuban family as of the summer, from July 5 to August 31.


This program of activities, which dates back to the year 2000, will award the most active families with tickets for cultural shows like the staging of the piece “Cats” in Cuba, the performance of the Litz Alfonso Ballet Company, and a theatre play by the children’s theatre group La Colmenita (the little beehive).



The winning families will also have the opportunity to become members of the Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura with full access to its services, and a meeting with City Historian Eusebio Leal Spengler.



Among the main Rutas for this year is craftsmanship in precious metals, minerals, arms collections, or the Havana Factory, which are dedicated to children and youths.



Besides, there is the “A buen entendedor” (A word to the wise) Ruta, which recreates traditional and contemporary elements in the popular culture. The organizers explained that Andares offers a tour through farthest places from Old Havana and deals with the origins of African culture, Cuban currency, as well as the origins of curator’s arts in Havana.


The municipality of Cojimar, which inspired U.S. writer Ernest Hemingway and his novel The Old Man and the Sea, will be included in the Andares tour through the summer.

Cuba Will Be Hosting International Forum on Deaf-Blindness

Regardless of the high cost of special education, Cuba now guarantees the training of 130 children with deaf-blindness in the country to integrate them into society.

The director of Special Education, Ministry of Education, Moraima Orozco said in a press conference that the figure is not large and may be considered insignificant in any country, if not taken into account the political will of the Cuban State.

What we do is prioritize research on the educational services needed to treat people with such disabilities, said Mrs. Orozco, convening the First International Workshop on deaf-blindness, "Defending hope" to be held in Havana on next July from 11th to 13th.

No cases in the country have been overlooked and all children are treated with the same priority.

Until now has been confirmed that some 170 experts from Angola, Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Spain, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, including 50 Cubans, will exchange their experiences during the forum on comprehensive care for deaf-blind children and adolescents to be held at the Havana-based Convention Center, according to official sources.

Although this is simple, this is another laudable result of a good education policy in our country.

Danny Glover in Havana

Actor Danny Glover is on a visit in Havana, where he attends an international workshop during the seminar Cuba and the People of African Descent in America.

Danny Glover, a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), found the development of Cuban art education and attention that is given to the children in ourcountry.


The actor of "The Color Purple" is participating in the seminar held in Havana from 13 to 17 June.

The American actor said that it’s time to find a new hope for people of African descent worldwide.

"It's time to find a new hope for our children and our grandchildren and their children and grandchildren of our grandchildren," said the 63 years old actor. U.S. actor Danny Glover, who is attending the event, said it is a tragedy that racism still exists in the second decade of the current century.

"We continue fighting this terrible problem and for that reason, this seminar should go beyond its borders and spread all over the world, where there are other injustices," stated Glover, who called for going beyond the racial struggle and uniting efforts to save the human species.

"We must address the lives of those thousands and thousands of millions, we also represent," said the actor, who found it necessary to delve into the problems and confronting people of African descent.

Glover said that while UNESCO dedicated in 2011 to African descent "after six months that have elapsed, this is the first event attended and dealing with this issue so seriously."

He also visited the headquarters of the Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba, where he witnessed children's dance class and danced to African rhythms like rumba and guaguanco.

"This is an issue that unites us," he told local media. Cuba is experiencing a vigorous debate on the persistence and new manifestations of racism on the island, despite laws and policies aimed at their disposal since 1959.

Fernando Martinez, director of the Juan Marinello Center for Research and Development of Cuban Culture, which is hosting the seminar, said in opening remarks that the capitalist system emerged on the basis of slavery, generating discrimination and all forms of marginalization.

He added that the struggle for the consolidation of socialism in Cuba must be linked to the elimination of racism. Participants are attending the event, which began Monday and ends Friday, from the United States, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Uruguay and the UN.

The program includes a tribute to Cuban independence fighter Antonio Maceo on the 166th anniversary of his birth.

Since the European colonization and development of capitalism in the formation of the current people of the Americas, also took part big contingents of people from different parts of the world. In the case of Africa, greed led to one of the greatest crimes of the human history, the forced movement of millions of people and their slavery in the Americas.

The descendant of those Africans share the identity of the people and nations after a long and complex historic process, they help creating with their work, the culture they had, their sacrifices and lives. They are also recognized and identified about the characteristics they have from their original predecessors.

Percuba Ensemble

The Fine Arts Museum in Havana puts into public consideration the presentation of Percuba Ensemble in a concert to be held next Sunday, June 12th, at five o'clock.

Percuba Ensemble is a musical project that was proposed as melodic rhythmic percussion base so it's an eight young percussionists group: students and graduates from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), which has set up a show keeping the objective of spreading the music of the world in national concepts.

A vibraphone, marimba, congas, three African roots drums batás , a drum, a drum set lower, rattles, sticks and instruments of the Brazilian sound are the atypical set. This format suggests the harmonic base of popular Cuban orchestra without piano or bass.

Percuba Ensemble is in the catalog of the National Center of Concert Music, and has been doing a work of contemporary Cuban percussion at different stages of the Island, Mexico, Curacao and France.

For this next Sunday concert Percuba Ensemble, which is presented systematically in different types of spaces, given the variability and mobility of his shows, will be offering a varied and innovative repertoire, which goes from work of JS Bach, Leo Brouwer, through those of Pablo Milanés, Fito Paez and Pello el Afrokan. It will include new works of the group too.


The ensemble has performed successfully in cities of Mexico and Curacao Jazz Festival in 2007, as interpreters and also doing workshops at music schools in these countries.

Percuba Ensemble emerged in 2007, after the union of members from several projects of equal cut in the Instituto Superior de Arte, and has as its primary objective operating the establishment of links between the instruments of popular music and concert music , without thereby losing the style of the different rhythms while preserving the most authentic Cuban music.

Its members, Magdelys Savigne, Katherine Travieso, Eilyn Marquetti, Manuel A. Vivar, Lennon Ruiz and Alberto Batista, led by Aristalia D. Favier, also head of the Department of Percussion Chair of ISA, impress the public at each stage.

This will be a concert worthy of appreciation and love of music-loving public in the largest of Antilles.

Excellent reception to the film"The Black Venus"

The Black Venus, a French film starring Cuban Yahima Torres in her acting debut, and directed by Adbellatif Kechiche, is now in Havana movie theaters. I’s one of 23 films that will be screened through June 30 for the 14th French Film Festival in our land.

The Black Venus has won Lumiere prize for Torres as best actress for playing South African woman Saartje Baartman, the victim of racism in early 19th century France. It also has praise from international critics.

Yahima Torres confessed the role changed her life not only as an actress but also as a human being. She talked to the press when the film opened in Havana last Saturday.

The 30 years old actress also said that she was very proud to play Baartman, a Bushman tribe member with hypertrophied genitals who amazed European scientists, artists and bourgeois society people, who abused her like an animal.

She added that "it’s important for everyone to know about this type of story, which still happens in these times full of differences and racism among the people”.

For the role, which also won her a nomination for the Cesar awards, Torres took classes in acting and Afrikaans, cut her hair, and gained weight.

She said she plans to continue acting and has several proposals awaiting her in France, including in the theater.

Cuba Celebrated International Children’s Day

Countless celebrations ‘cause of International Children’s Day were hold in all elementary and secondary schools, parks, museums, plazas, and many other places over the whole island.

The program of the Jose Marti Pioneer Children’s Organization of Cuba (OPJM) included cultural and sports activities, and exhibitions of the Cuban Movement of Pioneer Children Scouts.

Our children and adolescents sent a message of love, joy, and faith in a better world, from Cuba, a mainstay of children’s hope and protection.

On a date like this, Cuba has the rare privilege to further improve the children’s quality of life and, against all odds, defend their rights, which are equally guaranteed to all of them, even before they are born.

It was scheduled to take place to mark the date, and prior to the celebration of Children’s Day in Cuba on July 17, is the 19th National Festival of Children’s Songs ‘Cantandole al Sol’.

The Pioneer Children Scouts will also carry out reforestation actions in all the provinces of the country as part of a series of activities to mark the World Environment Day on June 5.

The World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland, proclaimed June 1 as International Children’s Day in 1925.