D.

Nicols Guilln Landrin

Nicols Guilln Landrin

1938

Born in 1938 in Camagey. Studied social science and politics at the

1962

University of Havana and dropped out to work as a radio-station

ICAIC

announcer. In 1962, he started to work as an assistant producer and

ICAIC

director at ICAIC. He learned from Joris Ivens who had been invited by

(1961) 1963

ICAIC to give courses and lectures and participated in Ivens

s Travel

Notebook (1961) as a narrator. Starting in 1963, such films by Guilln

(1965)(1966)

1965

1965

1966

Landrin as In an Old Neighborhood appeared. In 1965, Guilln

35mm6

35mm17

35mm15

(1966)

Landrin directed Ociel of the Toa River, which, together with Reportage

(1966) and Return to Baracoa (1966), forms a trilogy filmed in eastern

Cuba. These works established Guilln Landrin

s original style

of ethnographic or experimental documentary in Cuban

cinema, which was influenced by Italian Neorealism and the

I CAIC

ICAIC

ICAIC

Nouvelle Vague. His edgy expressions were subjected to

censorship in Cuba and he received treatments of

1989

electroconvulsive therapy many times. His cinema discourse

2 0 0 1 Inside Downtown

on revolutionary process and film aesthetics remains an

2003 7 23

inspiration to young filmmakers. In 1989, he emigrated to the

United States, where he made Inside Downtown in 2001. On

July 23, 2003, he died in Miami, a victim of pancreatic cancer.

Ociel of the Toa River

National poetNicols Guilln is his paternal uncle

Ociel del Toa

Return to Baracoa

CUBA / 1965 / Spanish / B&W /

Retornar a Baracoa

Video (Original: 35mm) / 17 min

CUBA /1966 / Spanish / B&W /

Director: Nicols Guilln Landrin

Video (Original: 35mm) / 15 min

Photography: Livio Delgado

Director, Script: Nicols Guilln Landrin

Editing: Cata Villaln

Photography: Livio Delgado

Music: Roberto Valera

Editing: Amparo Laucerica

Sound: Rodolfo Plaza

Music: Leo Brouwer, Ulises Fernndez

Producer: Jos Gutirrez

Sound: Eugenio Veza, Rodolfo Plaza

Production Company, Source: ICAIC

Producer: Jos Gutirrez

Dancers

In an Old Neighborhood

1963

En un barrio viejo

Los del baile

CUBA / 1965 / Spanish / B&W /
Video (Original: 35mm) /6 min

35mm9

CUBA / 1963 / No dialogue / B&W /

Director, Script: Nicols Guilln Landrin

Video (Original: 35mm) / 9 min

Photography: Luis Garca

Director, Script: Nicols Guilln Landrin

Editing: Mara Esther Valds, Justo Vega

Photography: Livio Delgado

Music: Pello el Afrokn, Federico Garca

Editing: Cata Villaln

Sound: Ral Garca

A black-and-white poem structured around the

Production Company, Source: ICAIC

Sound: Ricardo Istuesta

Producer: Eduardo Valds Rivero

ICAIC

daily life of the country boy Ociel, who lives on the

Located in the eastern tip of the island, and

Producer: Roberto Len Henrquez

People dancing to the Latin music rhythm of

Toa River in the Oriente province of Cuba. He

famous for its chocolate production, Baracoa sees

Production Company, Source: ICAIC

Mozambique,invented by Pello el Afrokn, for

spends most of his time rowing a log boat in the

new factories and development causing changes in

Featuring images of old Havana, with its

which Cuban music once again became known

river. On weekends he enjoys the modest diversion

economy and social systems after the Revolution...

dilapidated houses, its tiled roofs, its small towers,

throughout the world. Contrasting the frenetic

of going to dances and cockfights and attending

This short is the first of many in which Guilln

its narrow sidewalks, its cobblestone streets, its

trance of the sexes under the sway of the music,

school and church in the nearest village.

Landrin experiments with still photographs,

people... An affectionate experimental short

there are faces rapt in private thoughts,

documentary that paints a mosaic of Cuba by

focusing on a microcosmicold neighborhood,

accompanied by the soft sounds of the clavichord.

where the country

s personality slowly emerges

photo-animation, and text inserts.

And again people dance, a Cuban fiesta of rhythm.

through its various dualities: young and old, sound

and silence, Christianity and Santera, civilian life
and military presence, poverty and abundance, etc.
A renowned work by Guilln Landrin.

34

35

D.

Nicols Guilln Landrin

ExtraScreening

2003 6 22

1966

1968

2003

35mm

35mm18

30

ICAIC

ICAIC

EICTV

6070

Congos reales

45

Enciclopedia

Reportage
Reportaje (Plenaria campesina)

Coffea Arabica

CUBA / 1966 / Spanish / B&W /

Coffea Arbiga

16

Patio arenero Homenaje

a Picasso

Congos reales

Popular

Video (Original: 35mm) / 9 min

CUBA / 1968 / Spanish / B&W /

Director, Script: Nicols Guilln Landrin

Video (Original: 35mm) / 18 min

Coffee with Milk

Photography: Livio Delgado

Director: Nicols Guilln Landrin

Caf con leche

Editing: Justo Vega

Photography: Lupercio Lpez

Music: Armando Guerra

Editing: Ivn Arocha

CUBA / 2003 / Spanish, English / Color / Video / 30 min

Producer: Jos Gutirrez

Sound: Rodolfo Praza

Production Company, Source: ICAIC

Producer: Jorge Rouco

A funeral procession in which villagers march

Production Company, Source: ICAIC

ICAIC

Director, Sound, Source: Manuel Zayas

Photography: Arnold Daz / Daniela Sagone
Editing: Joel Prieto
Sound Editing: Alicia Aln / Shinya Kitamura

along a mountain path to solemn music bearing

From planting seeds and fumigation to

Cast: Nicols Guilln Landrin

the coffin ofDon Ignorancia.In spite of the

harvesting and roasting, this account of coffee

Producer: Magdiel Aspillaga

sobbing and the kerchiefs covering people

s noses,

growing then proceeds, in a radically experimental

Production Company: EICTV

on closer look the procession reveals itself to be

way, to fade in the noise of omnipresent

Cafe con Leche is a documentary about Nicols

only a symbolic one, with a cardboard box for a

propaganda. Guilln Landrin

s short documen-

Guilln Landrin. Highly censored during his

coffin...Ignoranciameans ignorance in Spanish.

tary violates the conventions of cinematic language

lifetime, Guilln Landrin belonged to a

Compared to the previous works of the filmmaker,

through its use of montage, photo-animation, and

movement of Cuban documentary filmmakers

the last of the trilogy is submerged in a more grave

inserts of texts. The filmmaker also cites a poem by

during the 60s-70s, who were concerned with

and somber tone.

his uncle, Nicols Guilln.

pushing the technical and artistic limits of cinema

as a medium, and documentary as a form. His
highly controversial films were artistic in nature
and personally expressive, proving Landrin a
revolutionary thinker and one of the manycensored geniuses that history has forgotten.

36

ICAIC

ICAIC

ICAIC

ICAIC

ICAIC

37

D.

Nicols Guilln Landrin

ICAIC ICAIC

ICAIC

Taller de Lnea y 18

18

ICAIC

ICAIC

Cordn de la Habana

In an Old Neighborhood

Taller de Linea y 18Nosotros

en el Cuyaguateje

ICAIC

Taller

de Linea y 18 ICAIC

Rita

Montaner

ICAIC

ICAIC

ICAIC 10 Taller de

Lnea y 18 18 Un

ICAIC

reportaje sobre el puerto pesquero

Nosotros en el Cuya-

guateje Para

ICAIC

construir una casa

34

Desde La Habana, 1969, Recordar

1969

Un festival deportivo

Taller de

ICAIC

Linea y 18

Desde La Habana...

Desde La Habana...

38

39

D.

Nicols Guilln Landrin

Films from Ostracism An Interview with Nicols Guilln Landrin

Interviewer: Manuel Zayas
Collaborators: Lara Petusky Coger, Alejandro Ros

70 ICAIC

ICAIC

These were basically the last words of a man of the most varied occupations: filmmaker, painter, sometimes poet and radio host,

and of his times of misfortune, park guard and street cleaner. He died in Miami but wished to be buried in Havana.

ICAIC

1973

Nicols Guilln Landrin passed away on June 22, 2003.

Two months before, in what would be his last interview, he spoke of his banned films.

Nicols, how did you start in film?

extraordinary head for movies. He was the one

Congos), your first short films, now lost? Did

who named me a film director. They had

they prefigure your experimentation?

Well, when I was a teenager I tried to make a

contracted him in Cuba to form a school for

Buena gente

16-millimeter film with a group of guys from

documentary filmmakers. He approved me as

Of course, for the way they were edited, the

Camagey. But it didn

t work out because we had

assistant manager. It was a jump from administra-

camerawork, for how the characters of these

no way to edit it. My mother, I remember, bought

tive work to artistic work. I wrote him a screenplay

documentaries were treated. I think Congos reales

about a painting by Van Gogh, about Van Gogh

s

is a good short film. They were all four or five

me one of those cut-and-paste editors, but we

couldn't edit the film. We managed to get a

bedroom. With this screenplay he decided to name

minutes long, they were part of a workshop in a

camera, but not to make the film.

me to the artistic department instead of adminis-

department calledPopular Encyclopedia,run at

tration, and that is where I started from.

the time by Fernando Villaverde.

ICAIC

30 Inside Downtown

Downtown

1975

40

Later life led me down other paths: university,

the insurrection against Batista...

carries my full name, in all the others I go by

The images were more important than the

Guilln Landrin. I couldn

t go by Nicols Guilln

words themselves. I was interested in working the

Landrin, I had to use Guilln Landrin. I had to

image with a new language, a bold language that

take off my first name to avoid confusion with the

was interesting to viewers.

poet (Nicols Guilln). The poet didn

t make
What influenced this new language?
The ICAIC. At the ICAIC you could see all the
documentaries of an entire period. What
s more,

Social sciences. I wanted to be a diplomat.

My father was a lawyer, a lawyer for the sugar

at the ICAIC all the filmmakers were intent on

How did you enter the ICAIC?

workerspremium, the one who won payment of

making avant-garde cinema, just imagine... It

the premium to Cuban sugar workers. He was a

wasn
t only me, everyone tried in one way or

The woman I was married to at the time, her

great guy. My mother liked to make crafts, figures,

another to approach cinema in this way. From the

name was Cristina Lagorio, an actress, told me:

decorations. She was involved in art. She got me to

concern of establishing a position within the

"Why don
t you go to the ICAIC, you who paint

paint. I went to the Escuela de San Alejandro, a

industry, I dared to do things that were not looked

and have this obsession with movies, go fill out an

school called the annex of San Alejandro

upon favorably, because it was a matter of films

application and see if they accept you?" It was Juan

(Academy of Fine Arts)...

about the Cuban people, at those times, they had

Seres Extravagantes

PM

And later?

Of my documentaries there is only one that

Who were your parents?

Inside

to avoid interviews?

About a Catholic festival celebrated in Havana

at that time.

In your documentaries is there a tendency

What were you studying at the time?

ICAIC

Why did you go by Guilln Landrin?

films.

ICAIC

Do you remember what it was about?

Carlos Tabo who took me. They put me to work

to at least be made with elation, and I didn't have

with Joris Ivens, taking classes from him.

that.

What is the place in your work of Patio

arenero (Sand Yard), Homenaje a Picasso

Joris Ivens was a guy with a love of others and an

(Tribute to Picasso) and Congos reales (Royal

In Ociel del Toa (Ociel of the Toa River),

41

D.

Nicols Guilln Landrin

there's an intertitle that says It's good

know what to call it. I was trying to make films that

in coffee did things, how they lived, worked, how

people in Havana will know this. How much

were unlike others, that would not coincide with

they went about making coffee: planting it,

were people aware of the problems of the

others, my own very personal work.

countryside, to what degree did you want to

threshing it, working under the sun, very tough

work, and so on. But I didn't mean to mock the

reveal the poetry of the people living in the

Sometimes the work was so hard that things

countryside? What were your formal goals?

came out different from my prior intentions. That

What did you discover?

happened in the studio, and Joris Ivens never

criticized this, actually he praised me for it. But

Ociel del Toa arose from a conversation with

other directors in the industry, like Julio Garca

Theodor Christensen. I was talking to him and

Espinosa, always told me I was not following the

coffee project because that would have been

disastrous. There was irony, yes.
What about the work on the soundtrack in
Coffea Arbiga?

said: "We don

t have any subjects to treat." And he

screenplay that had been approved. I always had

Well, I made a mixture of tracks, there are

asked me: "Why don

t you go into the countryside

problems with this, with several films commis-

various juxtaposed tracks. The work consisted of

and find a subject there?" I talked with the manage-

sioned by the ICAIC ...

mixing the sound of more than one track. I used all

ment of the ICAIC, got on a bus and ended up in

the elements that I felt corresponded to Havana or

Baracoa. There I was captivated by the beauty of

Let me explain something. For example, I made

Cuba at those times: all the artists, the characters,

the place and its individuals, the people of Baracoa.

my first documentary the way I pleased. The first

Pello el Afrokn, that is, the mockery was that the

I took up Ociel del Toa as a fresco of Cuba through

three or four documentaries I had all proposed

Havana Sugar Belt, the coffee project, was not a

the lives of the peasants in this province. Without

and produced myself. So after having made Ociel

success, that is why the documentary is seen as a

being very optimistic.

del Toa, Retornar a Baracoa and Un festival

mockery of the coffee project. I thought the coffee

deportivo (A Sports Festival), they put me in

project, from what I had been told, would be an

prison. For ideological reasons, they said. They

achievement of the revolution and that

s why I

announcing changes in this form of bucolic

sent me to the Isle of Pines and gave me electro-

dared make this documentary. Because I also had

life. And changes were to come.

shocks. After prison, I told them there was noth-

some doubts sometimes and wanted to place this

ing else for me to do: either I stayed in the film

doubt a little in the film.

In Ociel del Toa maybe you were also

I focus on the entire transition. It was only

industry or please let me leave the country. They

natural. If I went to the Toa and the Toa continues

told me no, that I should stay in the film industry

being an unacceptable place from the political

and they told me to make Coffea Arbiga.

point of view of the ICAIC management, I

What was the reaction to Coffea Arbiga?

Coffea Arabica

language from that of other films produced by the

A decade after joining the ICAIC you made

industry to praise the coffee project, but it seems

Taller de Lnea y 18, Un reportaje sobre el

that this project I repeat didn't produce results.

puerto pesquero (A Report on the Small Fish-

At the preview, Julio Garca Espinosa said he

ing Port), Nosotros en el Cuyaguateje (We in

would only approve this documentary if the

Cuyaguateje) and Para construir una casa (To

assembly plant workers approved it. And the

The reaction of the management of the ICAIC,

Soon you made Desde la Habana, 1969,

wouldn
t have done the documentary. I integrated

They asked me to make Coffea Arbiga, which

I don't know about other sectors, was praise of the

Recordar (From Havana, 1969, Remember-

all the elements of political and social life of the

was the most problematic documentary I made in

documentary. They held a gala premiere. They had

ing), and a documentary about Rita Montaner.

Build a House). Tell me about them.

mixed together bothered them a lot.

workers went to the ICAIC, the plant administrators went, so did the union leaders, and they saw

Well, I never knew if my documentaries were

the documentary. And when Julio asked them,

shown to the public, I wanted to tell you that. But

"What do you think, the sound doesn't bother

Toa, the things the people expressed. The remark

this period. I went to the department of scientific-

a poster made by Ral Oliva, a good designer. The

s good that people in Havana will see thiswas

It

technical documentaries as a sort of concession to

documentary participated in the Oberhausen

one of their ideas.It

s good they will see how I

the management of the ICAIC, since they were

festival, but I don't think it won a prize. But all the

In Desde la Habana..., I tried to make a very

with Taller de Lnea y 18, this is what happened.

you?they said,No, we approve of the documen-

carry this crate and walk through the river with

taking me back. But, for example, Ociel del Toa

issues around Coffea Arbiga started suddenly.

subjective, personal and very experimental film,

They showed it in public, and Cuban radio at that

tary.And the plant workers approved it, that's

why they put it in theaters.

this merchandise, and that they will see this in

wasn
t by commission, Retornar a Baracoa wasn
t

Nothing unpleasant had happened. They never

completely experimental, something that didn't

time started to criticize it:What did I mean with

Havana because in Havana they don

t know about

by commission, Los del baile (Dancers) wasn't by

told me anything, nobody from the ICAIC

work out because they said it was chaotic. My

the question [in the movie],Do you want to be

this.And that's why I put it in.

commission, En un barrio viejo (In an Old

management said anything negative about Coffea

nerves weren
t in great shape when I started these

examined by this assembly?Who was it directed

Can you say what in your films distances

you from the revolutionary epic, the official

Neighborhood) wasn
t by commission. These were

Arbiga. Among the official spectators, someone

films, because the pressure under which I lived in

at?And it was terrible.What did Guilln mean

documentaries I made freely, that I chose and

didn't like the songThe Fool on the Hill,though

Havana was slowly driving me crazy...

by this?On the radio! That was the end.

produced.

it worked very well. And apparently I had to pay

line?

for this. Something that I did with such elation

Tell me more about Coffea Arbiga.

Well, in Coffea Arbiga I try to approach this

and dynamism, the result was ironic, a mockery for

some, the epic, and in Taller de Lnea y 18 (The

There
s irony in it, but not... it wasn
t intended
only as a mockery, that
s out of my hands. I wanted

aim was not to make epic films. They wanted

to ironize about the things that were happening in

orthodox films, in accordance with what the State

the coffee plantations around Havana, the

imposed on the management of the ICAIC.

so-calledCordn de La Habana,the Havana

Looking back, what does this documentary in particular mean to you?

It was a pleasant experience that I don
t regret. I

the final copy of Desde la Habana...?

The documentary that triggered my expulsion

He always treated me well.

from the industry wasn

t Coffea Arbiga, it was
Taller de Lnea y 18. Though I made a documen-

Do you feel like a disciple of Santiago lva-

Because the ICAIC management considered it

tary after this, called Nosotros en el Cuyaguateje, a

incoherent with the context. That

s what they told

nice film, nothing more. But Taller de Lnea y 18

me, that it was incoherent with the Cuban

was strongly rejected both inside the industry and

Well, I'm not Santiago lvarez's disciple, but

context. Rita Montaner, the same, it was incoher-

out. In this film I used many recordings from the

in a way I liked the attitude with which he

ent. The director of the ICAIC, Julio Garca

plant at high volume. These recordings are not on

confronted the political themes of the moment, it

felt pretty right to me.

Though my films were orthodox in a certain way. If

Sugar Belt project. I also dealt with coffee in other

am very happy to have made it, I think I established

Espinosa, said I was someone who was incoherent

this copy, they were removed, they smoothed

you see Retornar a Baracoa (Return to Baracoa),

parts of the Island. And I think I was very harsh in

guidelines in terms of film language, and that was

with the context.

down

it
s a type of classic film. I can't qualify it, I don
t

the way I portrayed how these people who worked

what concerned me most, that it be a distinct

42

Santiago lvarez. Santiago lvarez approved

all the documentaries I made under his direction.

Why do you think they never brought out

some of the coffee project.

Lnea and 18th St. Bus Factory) as well. But the

Who gave you the most support?

the

sound...

Hammers,

rez?

electronic

equipment, the voices of the workers, all this

I consider him a good documentary maker.

43

D.

Nicols Guilln Landrin

And Titn (Toms Gutirrez Alea) was

What else did they say? Intent to leave the country

always very close to me. He thought I was one of

illegally. All this was false. Cuban ex-prisoners

the best directors in the industry.

included me on a list of people who should leave

the country. And other people, intellectuals,

You were expelled from the ICAIC in the

early seventies. How was that?
My leaving the ICAIC was very tough, because
I wanted to make films. I hadn't made bad films. I

declared I should abandon the country, that they

should let me leave.
Why did you never think of making
fictional films?

think in my particular case you have to look at the

pressure on the management of the ICAIC,

I proposed the script for a fictional film called

because Alfredo Guevara always praised my work.

Buena gente (Good People), about a very good type

guy who wanted to kill a head of state. This script,

What did you do afterwards?

which wasn't approved, was brought out in some

of my trials, they said I had dared to conceive of the

I painted, but they didn

t give me materials. I
started wandering around Havana, in a certain way

death of a head of state as a counterrevolutionary.

I had a conspiratorial attitude, me alone against

the State. Because this is the work of Fidel Castro
Ruz, Fidel Castro Ruz who said right from the

Nicols Guilln Landrin

Even though the movie had a damn happy end.

anguish of living, every month you need to have
What was it like to make Inside Downtown,
after 30 years of not having made films?

beginning when I started at the ICAIC, at the

the money for the apartment, to pay all your bills

[he said the word in English]... have friendships,
which is always very hard ... not be alone.

premiere of En un barrio viejo, he said:Damn,

The film, made in Miami, is like my need to

you'd think En un barrio viejo was made by a

show myself that I could still make movies, even

French director.Imagine saying this at that time!

though it is a video, made totally in digital, and

How do you want to be remembered?

That's what Fidel Castro said about En un barrio

this was the first time I had worked this way. And

As a black guy six feet tall, pleasant, intelligent,

viejo. So, instead of thinking of Julio, Alfredo or

it turned out ... Look, this documentary took a

affectionate with everything you can be affection-

Santiago lvarez, of anyone in the management of

prize. Inside Downtown won a prize in Uruguay,

ate with ... Remember me like that. As an artist,

the ICAIC, I thought of Fidel Castro, that he was

honorable mention. It was very hard for me at

my work is there. I am still an artist, I still paint, I

responsible for my expulsion from the ICAIC. It

first, but then as the days went by, because the

made a documentary. People should remember

was he who expelled me from the ICAIC, I assure

shooting process was very long, I started feeling

me as I think I am ... A good guy. Yes. A good guy.

you. I
ll swear to it.

better, more disposed. Jorge Egusquiza, the

For the First Time

producer and photographer, told me to take up an

What do you think about the ostracism?
Do you think you are still forgotten?

idea that could be achieved immediately and that

I should do it around my modus vivendi, with
people I knew here in Miami.

Well, no. I don

t think I'm forgotten right now.
I lived through the ostracism in Havana for many
years and it seems that someone or some people

What did you want to get across in this

movie?

Manuel Zayas

remembered me and are trying to make things

different now. But ostracism is a very dark veil, it
s
very impenetrable, you can
t survive it and remain

I wanted to show that I was in Miami, that I

was alive and making films.

a sane, aware person. That's what happened to me.

After all that has happened, can you say
Under what circumstances did you go into

you are happy?

exile? What happened when you came to

Miami?

I am not happy. The brief moments of

Born in Cuba in 1975. Studied direction of

documentary at the Escuela Internacional de Cinema y
Televisin (International School of Cinema and TV) of
San Antonio de los Baos, and the Filmakademie
Baden-Wrttemberg,

Germany.

He

has

made

biographical documentaries Caf con leche, about

Nicols Guilln Landrin; and Seres extravagantes,
about Reinaldo Arenas. Currently finishing a

happiness I have with my companion Gretel

documentary about Manila, the capital of the

Well, I was arrested and the last time I was

Alfonso are what make me feel relatively happy

Philippines, and another aboutPM affairewhich

arrested they set a risk index for me, that included:

sometimes. Because happiness is a bit of a myth ...

marked the beginning of the censorship in the

plans for an assassination attempt against the

But I aspire to be happy. I want to get there. I don

t

revolutionary Cuba. Manuel Zayas now lives in

Commander-in-Chief, ideological divergences...

know if I'll know how. But there is always the

Barcelona, Spain.

44

ve Got Taste
And... We

45