As a complementary event to Pío Serrano‘s presentation of Lorca in Cuba, the CCCNY presents Asesinato en Granada, the critically acclaimed documentary on the life and death of Federico García Lorca, filmed in 1976 by Cuban director Humberto López y Guerra, 40 years after the murder of the renowned Spanish poet and playwright in 1936.
This is the first film on Lorca showing interviews with family members and friends of the poet in the places where he grew up and lived. For the first time, Lorca’s relatives allowed a film crew inside his home. His brother, Francisco García Lorca, who died shortly after he was interviewed, shared the poet’s original collections of drawings and photos. His nephew, Manuel Fernández Montesinos, narrates what transpired in the family’s country home in San Vicente, Granada, in the days leading up to the murder. The film also shows interviews with Salvador Dalí‘s sister, Ana María, who belonged to Lorca’s intimate group of friends; Carmen Ramos, young Federico’s nanny, and the poet Vicente Aleixandre, among other friends.
The film will be followed by a Zoom Q&A with the director and with Lorca scholar Pío Serrano. The bilingual session will be moderated by Lourdes Gil, Director of our Literature Program.
DUE TO THE COVID PANDEMIC, THIS FILM WILL BE STREAMED THROUGH OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
In Spanish, with English subtitles.
Please click on this link on the scheduled date and time:
https://youtu.be/WPiUlFsxhMc
H.L. Guerra (Humberto López y Guerra) is a Cuban novelist and director with a long and distinguished trajectory as a filmmaker, who has resided in Sweden since 1968. An alumni of the School of Cinematography of Bablesberg, Germany, he has 
directed more than 20 documentaries and television series, including the internationally acclaimed Federico García Lorca: Murder in Granada (1976); Arrabal (1978), a Prix Italia winner; the Emmy-nominated The Long Sentence (1981); Castro’s Cuba, the most complete series on 1980’s Cuba; and Ondskans år (The Evil Years), winner of the Best Series award by the Scandinavian TV network Nordvision; among many others. In 2012 he published El traidor de Praga (The Traitor from Prague), Editorial Verbum, Madrid, described as “a milestone in the genre of espionage in Spanish language literature”. On November 19, 2016, he published to critical acclaim Triángulo de espías (Spy Triangle), the second entry of the trilogy that began with The Traitor from Prague. His first film, Murder in Granada, represented Sweden in several European festivals: Lille, France in 1977; Festival dei Populi, in Florence, Italy in 1977; and Festival de Cine in Barcelona, Spain in 1978, catapulting López y Guerra to international recognition as a filmmaker.
H.L. Guerra during the interview with
Francisco García Lorca, the poet’s brother.
This film event is made possible by Films Media Group
And is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
With the promotional collaboration of
“Asesinato en Granada / Murder in Granada” is a complementary presentation of the Cuban Cultural Center of New York’s 19th annual congreso, its flagship event, this year titled España en Cuba: Un ir y venir, streamed on our YouTube channel on Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22, 2020.