Hugo Rivalta, our man in Havana and Co-Director of HGFF.

Returning to Glasgow and our Film Festival.

I feel like last year these days, restless, anxious; I look like one of those characters of Woody Allen, neurotic -half desperate.

This will be my second trip to Glasgow, but I feel as nervous as the first time. My psyche is out of balance, to the point that I developed a strange aversion to numbers on the calendar. Every morning when I got up, turned the almanacs wall in the house. And it is that I don’t want to wait, to go tangling in between numbers, names of days and months. I want to end it, so the date of my trip will arrive now, at that Thursday of November.

I would already be at the airport; leave my family and take the big plane. I am ready to walk again in Glasgow. On this second visit I will be more curious, and hope to find new things, discover more of the city and its people.

Here in Havana it is early morning, but I cannot sleep, so I write. At daybreak, I will not have fear of the numbers on the calendar; and finally the long wait is over; the morning flight to Glasgow. I carry with me Cuban films, video clips, music and Havana Club rum.

In this second edition of the Havana Film Festival Glasgow, we will see good Cuban cinema and other parts of the world. There will be meetings with friends; Cubans reading children’s stories; and also, let’s dance.

Although it is autumn in the city and there will be cold and rain, I’m sure that day will be beautiful. There are many guests for this event; Cuban cinema and culture, we will be partying in Glasgow.

—-

Hugo Rivalta, November 2, 2016