2 | 16/04/2021 – 12:34 pm (GMT-4)
The Cuban film director Manuel Herrera Reis denounced that his documentary Girón suffered censorship of several fragments during its broadcast this week by Cuban Television.
“The screened version of my movie Girón in the program “In a way” IT’S NOT MY MOVIE. A hidden hand cut several sequences damaging artistic purposes that made her an important work in Cuban cinema, “Herrera wrote in his profile on the social network Facebook.
The filmmaker noted that no one consulted him or asked for his permission as claimed by copyright law, to censor scenes from the film, a 1972 Cuban film.
“My rights to the work have been violated. I am disappointed in this shows neo-Stalinism that we loved missing and that we have to fight. What separates us from Alice in Wonderland? What is this called? Cynicism. At 47 years of release change history !. I’m sure if the Americans did that we wouldn’t hesitate to say he’s cynical and shameless, “Herrera said.
In his text, he drew attention to Cuban cultural institutions, including the ICAIC, Cuba Cinema and UNEAC.
Although Herrera did not mention the segments that were censored, everything indicates that the mutilations of the film correspond with partipantes in the combats of Girón Beach by the revolutionary side that soon left the country in disagreement with the communist regime, like the pilots Rafael de el Pi and Alvaro Prendes.
Herrera, 79, is a veteran film director with a distinguished career with the Cuban Institute of Film Art and Industry (ICAIC). In his filmography they appear in addition films like The call of the hour (1969), Capablanca (1986) i Sapphires, blue madness (1997).
Herrera is awarded the Distinction for National Culture. He is the husband of the well-known actress Eslinda Núñez.
Cuban Television has been broadcasting documentaries and films on the subject of Girón for several days as a tribute to the 60 years of the invasion.
Herrera’s publication had dozens of interactions and several comments highlighting the unfortunate fact that censorship continues to be exercised on Cuban Television with impunity.
The film producer Reymel Delgado Rodríguez stressed that such actions of Cuban Television are a total disrespect to the artist and the work, which Cubans can no longer afford.
the journalist Joel of the River he said, in his commentary on Herrera’s text, that censorship on television is a “policy as absurd as it is insulting.” He further stated that no one explains anything, no one gives a damn, and that the managers and officials of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) “cut because they feel omnipotent behind their biased decisions.”
Herrera shared a second message on Facebook, which is a quote a text from the dead historian of Havana, Eusebio Leal Spengler, In the book Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the lost newspaper.
“It is a bad service that is rendered to the peoples when the historical facts are hidden from them, out of childish fears or fear from the probable consequences. Everything can be explained, everything in its context can be understood, analyzed, precisely. valued “, quotes Herrera.
Girón is a documentary film with a duration of 118 minutes. It was a production of the ICAIC with script of Herrera and Julio Garci’a Espinosa. The music for the play was by Sergio Vitier and Carlos Fernández Averhoff and the photography is by Julio Simoneau.
At the end of 2020 the Cuban artist Orestes Hernández published a text on the climate of political censorship and fear that lives the current Cuban society. He emphasized the sustained repression to which the community of artists has been subjected by the island authorities since the 27N demonstrations.
He has also denounced censorship in Cuba, the actress Rebeca Proenza who responded to the leader of Good Faith, Israel Rojas, After he said that the 27N responded to “imperial goals of domination.” The young woman reminded Rojas that he too has suffered censorship when in a video clip he proposed the lesbian kiss of two women on stage.