Cuba in Clermont-Ferrand: long live the short film!

With the motto Sauve qui peut le court métrage (something like S.O.S., short film!) the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival was established on August 4, 1981, and it’s now considered the most important short film festival in the world by the vast majority of the film community; if it were not for the Cannes Film Festival, it would be the most important film event in France.

For the next decades, in theaters such as the emblematic Jean Cocteau, the best of the world’s short film production has been screened with a remarkable number of audiences. This, by the way, consolidates the importance of the event, devoted to an area never lesser in its cinematographic ambitions, but neglected, in terms of prestige and market, according to the more traditional and hegemonic production of feature films.

Although in its first editions it focused on French cinema, the Clermont International Competition was inaugurated in 1988, quickly becoming one of the highlights of the event, together with the growing Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market, an industry and networking space that has been in session since 1986. It is in these two sections where the Cuban presence at the festival is concentrated, the result of a collaboration that has been constant over the last decade.

This cycle aims to explore the origins and evolution of the cinematographic dialogue between Cuba and Clermont-Ferrand, fostered by events such as the now extinct Muestra Joven and the Festival of New Latin American Cinema. It is made up of Cuban shorts that have participated in the French event from 2012 to the current year, where Abyssal (2021, dir. Alejandro Alonso) gave continuity to the island’s presence.

It is also the opportunity to present Iroko, a new streaming platform specialized in Cuban audiovisuals, with a varied offer of films and services dedicated to both local filmmakers and international viewers. Cuba en Clermont-Ferrand is only the first of several thematic cycles that we will be exhibiting soon, accompanied by critical dossiers from Rialta Magazine, our collaborators in this proposal.

Come and see, which is the same as saying, come and read.

https://rialta.org/cuba-en-clermont-ferrand/

José Luis Aparicio / filmmaker, curator and member of Iroko