March 18, 2011 - 5:30 PM
Please join the Bildner Center and presenter Jerry Carlson of City College and the Graduate Center, CUNY for the screening of two films Cuban Mysteries, An Interview with Leonardo Padura, and Dirty Real Havana produced by Claudia Ferman (University of Richmond).
Dirty Real Havana
Claudia Ferman’s documentary Dirty Real Havana is about Cuban writer Pedro Juan Gutiérrez and post-revolutionary Cuba. Gutiérrez became an international literary figure after his Dirty Havana trilogy was published in Spain in 1998. In this novel, which has not been published in Cuba to date, Gutiérrez exposed to an international audience life in Cuba during the so-called ‘Special Period,’ a critical time for Cubans following the fall of the Berlin Wall. The documentary reveals the writer’s persona as he opens up about literature, sex, and Cuba, in the context of 21st-century cultural debates. Ferman’s documentary debuted on July 22, 2010 in Argentina at the National Fine Arts Museum. The film weaves together conversations with Gutiérrez, which took place in Havana over a four-year period, with excerpts from his narrative and poetry presented in performance segments. The film was entirely filmed in Havana and post-produced in Buenos Aires.
Cuban Mysteries, An Interview with Leonardo Padura
Cuban Mysteries, An Interview with Leonardo Padura presents contemporary debates on culture, politics, and literature in Cuba, through an approach to Padura’s writings. Leonardo Padura is one of the most recognized writers in contemporary Cuban literature. He is internationally known as one of creators of the new detective novel. His best-known work is a tetralogy, Las cuatro estaciones (The Four Seasons), four novels depicting post-revolutionary Cuban society through the eyes of Mario Conde, a character that personifies the best qualities of the New Detective Novel. The film weaves together excerpts and dramatized sequences from Padura’s writing with an interview with the author at his home in Havana.
