From the film ‘Comme à Cuba.’
(This is a translation of the post from last week. Thanks Jeannette Pope)
Some weeks ago I attended a master workshop by Serge Giguère, one of our celebrated documentary filmmakers. His most recent film, the extraordinary – À Force des Réves – Productions du Rapide blanc – won the Jutra for the best documentary of 2006.
My friend Simon Bujold and I filmed the event and we’ll have the opportunity to discuss this at a later date.
Meanwhile I asked Serge to speak to us about a film which he liked at the Rencontres du documantaire de Montreal.
Here’s his choice:
“ I saw a film yesterday evening which touched me a lot – ‘Comme a Cuba’ – A film which the filmmaker Fernand Bélanger left unfinished before his death. His friends, Louise Dugal and Yves Angrignon luckily for all of us completed this work.
During more than an hour we are transported by images of workers doing simple trades and living their everyday life while the days tick by, driven along by a sound track of Cuban popular songs.
It’s incredible how the editing twines in perfect synchronicity between what we hear in the songs and what we see in the picture. It makes us feel so close to all the small daily gestures as it captures the Cuban soul. This is homage to ‘the people of people’ who, in spite of the pressure in their everyday life, the very precariousness of it, still manage to find moments of happiness.
As the theme song says which comes in like a lament, pulsing and pushing the film as it builds around the days: “When will I arrive home? ”. This is a nice metaphor for a film which steps towards freedom. I really suggest that you see it for it’s spellbinding images which cut into the heart of Cuban daily life.
I hope that it will be broadcast, for this is a film made with such a big personal investment by the filmmaker.”
