An exclusive sreening of three
shorts by the young filmmaker
Eliecer Jiménez Almeida,
one of the most promising, daring,
and independent voices in Cuban
cinema today. Born in Camagüey
in 1983, Jiménez Almeida has also
excelled as director, screenwriter,
and film critic. Among his most
notable works to date are the short
Para un príncipe enano, and the
documentaries Reportaje and the
award-winning Usufructo, which
will be shown alongside his latest
works, Videograma de la represión
and Persona.
My Aesthetics:
In the making of a documentary, everything is allowed, except lying.
Goran Radovanovic
Hello, I am Eliecer Jiménez Almeida, a Cuban filmmaker who manipulates the subjective zones of thought—generated by the vertical relationships of power—to open alternative paths to communication and culture. I use the camera like a notepad, where I document a reality that saddens me.
I make documentaries to bear witness, to expose and shake up the indifference toward the disadvantaged. I propose ideas that help tear down the walls of silence, the seeds of injustice, and give voice to the silenced. In my characters I see Nanook of the North (1922, R. Flaherty) and Ociel del Toa (1965, N. Guillén Landrián) with the hope that they don’t die frozen in the snow of oblivion, nor grow old in despair, hoping against hope, longing for a future that will never come.
In my characters I see myself, struggling to open up spaces in defense of social and economic freedom, and of the right to culture, art, and creativity. My aesthethic aspirations are, and always will be, to question life, and debate and reflect on the need and the possibility of changing the world from a vantage point of peace, justice, equality, and pluralism.
Reality is an endless voyage for the imagination. To the human being, always!
Amen
USUFRUCTO (2011),
10 minutes
—New York City Premiere
Synopsis: There is no greater handicap than man’s sense of frustration. The passing of time has not altered the dreams long nurtured by Heriberto M. Jiménez Capote. But life and the social circumstances in revolutionary Cuba have dealt him a different fate.
SELECT LIST OF AWARDS:
SIGNIS Prize–Asociación Católica Mundial para la Comunicación, XXI Muestra Audiovisual el Almacén de la Imagen, Camagüey, Cuba, 2011.
Special Award–Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de San Antonio de los Baños, X Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre de Gibara, Holguín, 2012.
Best Photography, Best Editing, Best Sound–I Concurso y Evento Teórico de Periodismo Audiovisual Ania Pino in memoriam, La Habana, Cuba, 2011.
Grand Prize–XXVII Festival Cine Plaza, La Habana, Cuba, 2011.
Cine Pobre Award–II Festival de Cine Surimagen, Cienfuegos, Cuba, 2011.
VIDEOGRAMA DE
LA REPRESIÓN (2015),
10 minutes
—World Premiere
Synopsis: Repression,
prohibition, and censorship
reinforce man’s thirst
for freedom.
PERSONA (2014), 27 minutes
—U.S. Premiere
Synopsis: Individual, neighbor, subject, fellowman, human being, ordinary guy, inhabitant, someone, anyone, character, prototype, archetype, personality, paradigm, person… A defenseless old man… An absent son… A Catholic gravedigger, an ex-prisoner unpardoned by society… A mother who suffers the loss of her son, swallowed by the ocean while trying to reach the United States… A writer in self-imposed exile inside his home, as a protest against cultural asphyxia… Five intimate stories, indivisibly united by the human condition. Everything transpires on a regular day, when five individuals, without official approval, speak up and lay bare their lives.
AWARDS:
Special Mention, Cinéfilos de Gibara, XI Festival Internacional del Cine Pobre de Gibara, Holguín, Cuba, 2014.
Nominated for Best Short Documentary Film in the Social Exposé Category, International Euro Film Festival, Malaga, Spain, 2015.
This one-night-only screening of the three shorts will be followed by a Q&A with director Eliecer Jiménez Almeida, moderated by Prof. Perla Rozencvaig, director of our Film Program.
BARUCH COLLEGE
25th Street, corner of Lexington Ave., NYC
5th Floor, SCREENING ROOM 165
FREE ADMISSION
Space is VERY limited
To RSVP, write to: cccofny@aol.com
This event is presented in association with the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature at Baruch College
and with the promotional collaboration of
and 