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.
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
“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
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
by Angus Reid for the Morning Star Havana Glasgow Film Festival – the only Cuban film festival in the UK – is aimed at enabling exchange at all levels between Scotland … Continue reading Havana Glasgow Film Festival 2019
Hace calor en La Habana – Roberto Chile Havana Glasgow Film Festival’s come a long way in five years – so far, that this year the festival went as far … Continue reading Havana Glasgow Film Festival 2019 Review
This year, Havana Glasgow Film Festival are hosting an edition of the festival in Havana, for the very first time. Here we will be showcasing the best in Scottish film, … Continue reading Nae Paseran in Havana
A Cuban Food Revolution Cuban chef Dani Acosta serves up a typical Cuban dish to the good people of Kinning Park Complex in Glasgow. At the first event of HGFF … Continue reading HGFF 2019 Podcast Episode 1 – Cuban Food
A couple of years ago, I was explaining to the editor of an esteemed music mag (I won’t say which one) that a gig review I’d written would take a … Continue reading From Strawberry and Chocolate to Fraternity Park
Image -Tomás Gutiérrez Alea “The world is already filmed, it’s now a matter of changing it.” Guy Debord – Society of the Spectacle In the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, … Continue reading The Point is to Change It
As I See Cuba is an ambitious exhibition running at Glasgow’s premier photography gallery, Street Level Photoworks, pairing the work of top Cuban photographer Roberto Chile and Glaswegian photographer Dougie … Continue reading As I See Cuba
Read in English Por Roberto Zurbano Torres* Sara Gómez Yera (La Habana, 1943-1974) fue una cineasta excepcional en el contexto del nuevo cine cubano y latinoamericano que surge en medio … Continue reading Sara Gomez: Una artista negra entre el misterio y el silencio clasicos
This year’s edition of Havana Glasgow Film Festival took as its theme women in film, an apt subject given how womens’ roles in the film industry have dominated the last … Continue reading Havana Glasgow Film Festival 2018
Civic Reception at Glasgow City Chambers! – 7 November 2018 Thank you everyone for the support, it was a beautiful night. #civicreception #passporttocuba #HGFF18
This weekend sees the centenary of the birth of Margaret Tait, a filmmaker and poet who has gone from being one of the most marginalised Scottish filmmakers, working on the … Continue reading Happy Birthday Margaret Tait
This year Havana Glasgow Film Festival’s closing film is Patricia Ramos’ prize-winning El Techo (On the Roof), which has been acclaimed as one of the most interesting recent Cuban films. … Continue reading A Roof With a View
Fernando Birri was one one of the most important figures in Latin American cinema, an Argentinian filmmaker who left behind a legacy of trailblazing films, as well as inspiring generations … Continue reading A Very Old Man With Enormous Influence
Fernando Birri is one of the most important directors in Latin American cinema, but one of the least known in Europe and the US, because of the uncompromisingly radical nature … Continue reading Probably the History of an Angel
Cuba has a long, rich literary tradition, extending from Jose Marti through Alejo Carpentier, the founder of magic realism, to the ‘dirty realism’ of Pedro Juan Gutierrez. However, in … Continue reading Hello Hemingway
Sara Gomez – Image by Agnès Varda Women have had a long, complex and much-contested relationship with cinema, one that has exploded over the course of the last year with … Continue reading She's Gotta Have It – Pioneering Women Filmmakers
Sara Gómez is a crucial figure in the history of both Cuban cinema and women’s filmmaking, if one who has been marginalised, thanks mainly to her early asthma-related death at … Continue reading Sara Gomez: A black filmmaker able to achieve the mystery and silence of the true classics
This month marks the tenth anniversary of the death of one of the most important figures in Cuban cinema, Humberto Solas. Solas would extend the range of Cuban cinema at … Continue reading The Revolutionary Cinema of Humberto Solas
The Cuban revolution was one of the defining moments for early ’60s politics, one whose repercussions would echo throughout the decade. Fidel Castro’s example would be held up as an … Continue reading Memories of Underdevelopment
Luis Alberto Garcia Meeting His New Fans Havana Glasgow Film Festival has just celebrated its third edition, with its most concise, focused programme, attracting its largest audience yet. This was … Continue reading Havana Glasgow Film Festival 2017
Here at Havana Glasgow Film Festival, we love to party – which we’ll be doing in style at the CCA on Friday, with an evening celebrating Cuban music. We;ll have … Continue reading El Sonido de Cuba
Havana Glasgow Film Festival kicks off today, and we’re all very excited about this year’s edition. Here are some staff and volunteer picks from the packed programme. Eirene Houston – … Continue reading Picks of the Fest
“Ghost Town To Havana” is a moving and powerful, if sometimes humorous, documentary exploring the power of baseball to change people’s, families’ and community’s lives. The film was made by … Continue reading Love and Baseball
In egalitarian societies, such as Cuba’s, some are of course more equal than others, and racial minorities tend to suffer the most from inequality. Cuba is a particularly unusual example, … Continue reading Roberto Zurbano on Race and Cuba
CinemaAttic are the premiere promoters in Scotland of Spanish, Iberian and Latin American cinema. As the name suggests, they actually began screening film in an attic in Edinburgh,. From these … Continue reading CinemaAttic at HGFF
While it may not look it on the surface, the intimate, low-key drama “Honey For Oshun” would herald a quiet revolution in Cuban cinema. The film stars Jorge Perugorria as … Continue reading Honey For Oshun
Our man in Havana, Hugo Rivalta, co-director of Havana Glasgow Film Festival, arrived in Glasgow today. At home, he’s a professional screenwriter and published novelist. We caught up with him … Continue reading Our Man in Havana in Glasgow
Luis Alberto Garcia is one of the most highly regarded actors in Cuba, having first come to fame 30 years ago with his role in the popular classic “Clandestinos”. “Clandestinos” … Continue reading Luis Alberto Garcia Speaks
Get tickets to Esteban at the Havana Glasgow Film Festival here. Contemporary Cuban cinema is characterised by social realist drama exploring the everyday lives of ordinary people, a trend exemplified … Continue reading A Cuban Billy Elliott
