Cuba, certainly at one point, had nothing to be proud of in its treatment of its queer communities, but things have changed to the point where it’s now one of the most progressive countries on LGBT rights outside of Europe, even if the old myths remain. It has one of the highest degrees of trans visibility anywhere in the world, with gender corrective surgery provided by the health service, and equal treatment in employment law guaranteed.
The theme of this year’s Havana Glasgow Film Festival is ‘Extraordinary Cuba’, and we are examining the ways in which this fiercely independent island nation is truly extraordinary, in its … Continue reading Extraordinary Cuba – An Interview with Michael Chanan
The Cold War cultivated an atmosphere of high paranoia, and threw up many intriguing stories of
spies, espionage and counter-espionage. One of the most notorious and comic example is the CIA’s reputed, doomed attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, through a series of increasingly outlandish manoeuvres that would sound more at home in Austin Powers than James Bond, ranging from explosive cigars, poisoned pens to bacillus-infested scuba diving suits, with optional booby trapped conch.
Sometimes at Havana Glasgow Film Festival we look to re-screen our most popular films, or films that we think deserve a wider audience. One such film is Patricia Ramos’ prize-winning El … Continue reading A Roof With a View – El Techo
Cuba is famous around the world for many things, from its music to its politics, but is perhaps not so famous for its sport. In fact, shortly after the revolution … Continue reading Running For The Revolution – The Power and Politics of Sport
Cuban music is justly famous worldwide, and arguably the country’s greatest export, one that can effortlessly transcend any cultural embargoes, no matter how petty or arbitrary. The island is renowned … Continue reading Music From the Edge of Time
Arturo Sotto’s “Breton is a Baby” is a discursive documentary which explores a subject you don’t often hear discussed in relation to Cuba – its sheer strangeness. Titled partly as a joke around Andre Breton, the French poet who founded the movement in 1924, the films’s premise is that “Surrealism is part of Latin America in a highly organic manner”, and after watching this film, you won’t disagree.
Miriam Rodero, Nov 2021 This year, Havana Glasgow Film Festival will be dedicating Saturday 20 November to the films of Arturo Sotto. The screenings kick off with Amor Vertical (1997), … Continue reading Arturo Sotto’s ‘Vertical Love’ and ‘Mantis Nest’ – Journeys of Escaping
Running for the Revolution is the story of Cuba’s greatest Olympic track and field athlete Alberto Juantorena. His gold medal success at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games catapulted him onto the world stage…
Fidel Up Close delves into the lesser known facets of Fidel Castro’s personal and intimate life from the perspective of those closest to him, including his children, close family members, delegates and employees. The documentary spans Fidel’s…
Based on the life of Benny Moré, El Benny spans More’s career from the mid 1940’s, until his untimely death in the early 1960’s at the age of 44. The film concentrates on a period in the early 1950s when Moré leaves Mexico and starts his own ‘Banda Gigante’ back in Cuba..
Olexandr Savchenko, “Sacha,” was one year old when the explosion of the nuclear power plant Vladimir Ilich Lenin in Chernobyl occurred on April 26, 1986. He lived in Chernigov, a village in the Ukrainian countryside near the area of the accident…
Hailed as the last soldiers of the Cold War, The Cuban Five were an elite group of undercover agents who operated out of Florida in the 1990s. Abandoning unsuspecting families to ‘defect’ to America, they assumed new identities, led double lives and sacrificed everything to defend Castro’s Cuba…
A film about the elements – hurricanes and rain, the sea and the earth. About Caibarién, a fishing port on the north coast of Cuba devastated by Hurricane Irma on 9th September 2017…
Fishermen from the ‘fifth list’ are the economic backbone and largest labor force of all fishing communities in Cuba. Fishing is their sustenance, culture and life. At the same time, they acknowledge that the future of fisheries depends on the balance between their economic needs…
irst in a series about small business owners who are implementing environmentally and socially sustainable practices. The film focuses on Nayvis Díaz Labaut, an engineer who set up Vélo Cuba – a bike repair shop to promote cycling in Havana…
In 2017, the Cuban government approved the State Plan to confront climate change, known as ‘Tarea Vida’ (Life Task). As a small Caribbean island, Cuba is disproportionately affected by climate change through extreme weather events, heat waves, drought, torrential rain…
Architecture student Estela (Silvia Aguila) makes a suicide attempt after her plans for solving Havana’s housing shortage are rejected. This brings her into contact with earthy, cynical hospital nurse Ernesto (Jorge Perugorria). Estela invites him home for dinner…
inspired by the surrealist artist Andres Breton. They travel to urban and rural places, observing local customs and rituals, partaking in local cuisines and interacting with entrepreneurs…
Cuban Music Video Music Video maker based in Glasgow Alejandro Valera Losa and Cuban filmmaker Arturo Sotto based in Havana will screen and discuss their latest Los Van Van video clip and talk about…
It is the summer of 1994 in Cuba, and tensions are high amidst the migratory crisis with the USA. In the village of Siboney, a young woman, Sugar, is convicted of murder …
Three independent stories linked to a writer’s room with imaginative crisis where people go to tell their stories, hoping someday to find fame as a character in a novel…
Music, history and emotion fuel this award-winning tribute to Los Zafiros – the Beatles of 1960s Cuba. To those whose lives they briefly touched, Los Zafiros are legends. A musical phenomenon molded by their time and place, The Sapphires caused a sensation in Havana and beyond throughout the 1960s…
Three young friends with their own ambitions meet up each day to talk about their lives. Bored and looking for a better future, they decide to set up their own business with what few resources they have. The pursuit of their dream doesn’t come without a cost but this ultimately leads them to a new maturity…
Since 1985, El Mejunje has offered refuge for people marginalized under Castro and a stage for their drag shows, punk rock and spoken word performances. From the beginning, El Mejunje’s performers risked persecution and violence from both the Cuban state and society at large…
Mango Tropical Bar/Restaurant
373 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow, G2 3HU
Join the regular salsa party hosted by Tumbao Salsa School to kick off the Festival experience!
This summer has been one of glory for Cuba, and with 7 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze medals, Cuban athletes reached an amazing 14th place in the Tokyo 2020 … Continue reading Cuba, the Olympics and Juantorena
2020’s been a challenging year for all of us, not least for film festivals, which have had to find new ways in which to showcase work and engage audiences. A … Continue reading Havana Glasgow Film Festival 2020
It’s been quite a year – and that’s an understatement. The entire world seems to have virtually ground to a halt, and time stood still, in the face of the … Continue reading Havana Glasgow Pandemic Festival
“We are Cuba!” is about the complex situation that the Caribbean island has lived in during the last 30 years. It is an account of how the criminal US blockade, … Continue reading Book Review: We Are Cuba by Helen Yaffe
The 1960s were the Golden Age of Cuban filmmaking, where filmmakers were swept up in the fervour of creating a new society, and the Cuban film institute ICAIC eager to … Continue reading Coffee and Contradictions
Fernando Pérez is Cuba’s most celebrated living filmmaker, one whose body of work over the last 30 years provides a vivid portrait of Cuban society. Cutting his teeth making documentaries for … Continue reading Over the Wall
Science fiction is one of the most fertile and consistently popular literary genres, with its roots often in a Utopian impulse, a wish for transformation and improvement. This is a … Continue reading Another World is Possible
La Pelicula de Ana (Ana’s Film) was a highlight of our first ever Havana Glasgow Film Festival. This satirical look at the conditions of Cuban film production may be set … Continue reading Sisters Doing It For Themselves
Earlier this year, Cuba was in a state of national mourning for the death of its best-loved animated filmmaker, Juan Padrón. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this … Continue reading Ian Padrón
Anyone familiar with Cuban music, knows the song Chan Chan. The Buena Vista Social Club classic has become representative for Cuba all over the world. Its evocative opening melody is … Continue reading Eliades Ochoa: Taking Cuban Music to the Global Stage
