Director Spotlight Gloria Rolando
Recently I had the pleasure of going to Havana and interviewing Gloria Rolando, an Afro-Cuban female filmmaker. Gloria is the head of an independent filmmaking group called Imagines del Caribe. She just completed a low budget independent dramatic short feature film titled “Raices de Mi Corazon” (Roots of My Heart). It deals with the 1912 massacre of over 6,000 members of Independents of Color. This organization was the first Black political party in the Northern hemisphere outside of Haiti. The story’s main character is named Mercedes, an Afro-Cuban living in Havana. Between dreams and reality, Mercedes learns the history of two of her great grandparents and their relationship with the Independents of Color. The film was done for only $6,500 and complete with only 15 days of shooting. Ms. Rolando told me that she financed the film independently with little contributions from many people.
I asked Ms. Rolando how she entered the film business. She indicated that her initial study was in art history. Initially she was interested in dramatic film and worked as an Assistant Director but was repulsed by the violence in the films. She then turned to the documentary film as she liked to see how research was integrated into a film’s story. One of her first jobs was for the famous Cuban director, Santiago Alvarez, whom I had the chance of spending two weeks with in 1993 in Amsterdam. Ms. Rolando was given a position in Mr. Alvarez’s editing room. She told me that Mr. Alvarez mentally composed his films by physically hanging the shots in order in large film bins. He liked the physical feel of film and likely if he were alive today not be interested in off lining on video. The first film she worked with Mr. Alvarez was titled “La Soledad de Los Dioses.” “It was a film about foreign debt in Latin America and the Caribbean—there was a conference that dealt with this subject that Mr. Alvarez shot that took place in Cuba near the end of the 1980’s.” Mr. Alvarez humanized this very abstract subject by using Proverbs and other biblical references. Her job was to help Mr. Alvarez find various Latin American paintings and Mexican murals that he would then film and integrate into the story. “Santiago’s theme was that if we (society) didn’t solve these problems of massive foreign debt, then at some point God would be alone as humanity would cease.”
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Gloria Rolando’s career has continued now for over 20 years. Some of her other films are as follows:
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Oggun:AnInternal Presence— on Orisha Oggun, the god of war, metals and civilization, as experienced in the life of Cuban Yoruba singer, Lazaro Ros.
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My Footsteps in Baragua— on the history of West Indian people living in Cuba from Jamaica, Barbados and many other Caribbean countries.
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Eyes of the Rainbow—a film on Assata Shakur, the Black Panther and Black Liberation Army leader who took refuge in Cuba.
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El Alacran (The Scorpion)— deals with the carnival in Havana.
For the past month and continuing through early May, Gloria Rolando will have her new film, “Roots of My Heart”, on tour in the U.S. The following is a tentative schedule for April and May, 2001:
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4/15-4/16 Indiana University, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
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4/17-4/19 Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History, Atlanta, GA
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4/22-4/24 Caribbean Film Festival, Winona State University, Winona, MN
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4/25-4/26 Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska
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5/1-5/6 San Francisco-Bay Area contact: dblock@sfghpeds.ucsf.edu
Cuba has a wonderful film festival every year. Many of Ms. Rolando’s films have been screened there.