Going to Gibara feels like returning to a place you never left in the first place. Watch a movie too. The films that premiere in Gibara have the smell of salt. The rust of the benches, the grains of sand held to their shoes. It doesn’t matter if they are later shown in Switzerland or taken to a theater in Havana. Every second is left smelling of Gibara.
I sit on one of the benches. The city has the ability to turn you into a movie character. In it, the character of the journalist writes a chronicle about the first film that premiered at the XIX edition of the Gibara International Poor Film Festival. Natural Phenomena, is entitled.
A Cuban film. 80 minutes. The story of a disturbing town, a distrustful couple. A typical problem seen from another point. A touch of satire on fiction. One touch of fiction about fiction. A good movie. Perhaps not the one that should have been inaugurated (notes the journalist). But he also notes some things that the organizers remember.
The return of the Festival to its month of birth. April 2003, when Solás decided to go down Calle Real by himself. Which takes all the parks in its line, and leave forever the consecutive order of the walk. The music, the laughter, the big group hug before putting on the first film. A friend of Gibara tells me that this is already part of the idiosyncrasy of the Gibareño people.
Which is like being part of the city. He says that the show is the only moment in which all of Gibara beats in unison. I believe him, or rather, the character we become. This one who feels life lighter, softer, more artistic, believes it. When the Poor Film Festival arrives. All of Gibara shares a heartbeat. This is the first day in the Village. You are a character. I am a character.
Life is slower by the sea. Sweeter next to the cinema. More alive through people. I have one question left and five days to answer it. Is it the Festival that makes Gibara so alive, or is Gibara the life of the Festival?
By: María Karla Lam González
Translated by Aliani Rojas Fernández
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