Born in Güines, Cuba, Héctor Almeida is a filmmaker, editor, and actor who has worked for the Canal Habana, Cubavisión, Canal Nexos, and teleSUR television networks. His short documentary Para Esteban used his skills to create a video-letter with his grandparents, exploring themes of family memory and personal intimacy. The film has won the Funespaña Award, granted by the International Film Festival, Visualízame en tu memoria, and recently was also selected by audiences as the best film in Indy Film Library’s fourth Saturday Matinees season. He spoke to Indy Film Library about the nostalgia of old technology, and using it to tell emotionally impactful cinema.
What’s your background as an artist, and how did you originally get into filmmaking?
Since I was a child, I had a fascination with machines; video game consoles, the huge printers at the print shop where my father used to work, and computers. My parents told me how I would come home dirty because I would go through the dumpsters looking for junk to build myself a computer. At that time, they didn’t have the money to buy me one and it wasn’t until I was 18 that they were able to gather all the family together to give me one for my birthday.
Throughout my childhood, I “played” with Adobe Premiere Pro, trying to imitate what my cousins did, editing wedding ceremonies and birthdays. When I got my computer, they offered me to work with them and so I did for a few years until I decided to try working for television. I felt that I could explore new horizons but with no intention of dedicating myself to film. Little by little, new opportunities appeared, and I always liked auteur cinema, but I never saw myself as a “creator” but as a tool for creators. Until I felt the need to create Para Esteban.
I hesitated a lot to do it, but since it was something which I needed to do, I dared. Now I have more confidence in myself, since I never studied filmmaking, I felt incapable. Maybe the stories I want to tell are not great for everyone, but if I manage to connect with someone, that’s enough for me.
What was it that inspired your “need” to create Para Esteban?
The short film was born out of necessity. As it says at the beginning, my grandparents were very special in my life, and I wanted their memories to last forever; I wanted to immortalise them. Just when my nephew was born, the ideas began to flow. Added to this, there was no technology to do something similar before; I would have loved to have something like this of my ancestors. And being during the pandemic I became afraid of losing them.
At first, I didn’t even want to show it, it was more of a family gift for my nephew. The support of my friends was what made me give it a chance and promote it to the world. How can someone see the short film and connect if it is a very personal and intimate project? Maybe because when they see the film, they think of their grandparents too? Hopefully, this will help them to pick up a camera and film them…
As you mentioned, the film took place around the time of the Covid-19 lockdowns. How has your family been doing since the end of then? Did everyone get a chance to meet Esteban in person?
Everyone in the family had Covid-19, even Esteban when he was just a few months old. But wonderfully my grandparents never got it. They are currently doing well and enjoy every moment they can spend with the boy. The short film changed them. They get excited for every selection and/or screening it reaches. My grandfather who had not sung for many years now spends the day singing songs. They feel more at ease knowing that their memories will live on and that they are inspiring others.
The stories told by the elder family members in the film span an incredible period in Cuban and world history. Do you have any plans to explore any of the themes brought up in more detail with future films?
I have never been interested in directly dealing with political themes in my work. Cuban cinema is crammed with stories whose plots revolve entirely around the political context of the country. My ideas are to reflect situations of social reality and through this, there is already the social-political context; not to make everything revolve around that… it’s just a detail.
That’s how it works with the short film. My grandparents narrate the past, a past that encompasses both family and social stories. I think if on the other hand, if I had tried to do something more political, the result would have been completely different. It’s something that was born along the way.
Brian Eno once said that as soon as they can be avoided, the shortcomings of old technology will be “emulated and cherished”, each deployed as a kind of visual signifier of unfolding events being “too momentous for the medium assigned to record them”. I found it very interesting that you picked VHS as the framing device for your film. Why did you pick it for this project, and what do you think its rustic imagery brought to what was being shown?
VHS is my past. I grew up watching movies and family memories on cassettes. More than a style thing, it’s an emotional attachment. Add to this the fact that I loved machines, and I would take VHS tapes apart to try to fix them. So, as long as I deal with subjects in my work that speak of the past, the VHS will always be there. But if we talk about style and narrative there is something between the formats that I explored.
The short film is in three tenses: present, past, and memory. So, the present images were shot with my phone in a wide aspect ratio used in cinema. The ones from the past, which make up the interviews were shot with a camera in the 16:9 aspect ratio which when put together seems to be more closed. But it is the VHS used in 4:3 square, being like a journey between times. Each aspect ratio implies a different temporal narrative.
It wasn’t something that came out by chance, it was something aesthetic that I planned. And yes, we are all struck by these retro aesthetic issues because the world has moved on and the technology of the past is now “aesthetic”. I intended to make the short film look like those home videos I used to watch as a kid on VHS.
I think almost everyone with a camera at some point has thought to themselves: “I should really talk to my surviving relatives about how life was when they were young.” But most of us never get round to it. What do you think holds people back from this kind of filmmaking?
Everyone has a camera these days. It used to be a luxury, but with phones now anyone can make films. Sometimes it’s not a question of inspiration, but of personal barriers that one imposes on oneself. I wanted to film with a super camera, but I couldn’t.
Before not doing anything, I do it. Before doing nothing, I do it with my phone and let whoever wants to appreciate it, appreciate it. Many times, people want to make very complicated ideas or feel that their ideas are too good to be recorded with a phone. I repeat: if what I have is a phone, I will make movies with that phone.
Everyone should dare and lose their fear. We all have something to tell. There is no need to get entangled or impose barriers. Pick up the phone and film. Also, people look for stories that are distant and separate from their daily lives, but it is in the personal, the close, and the intimate, that what is special.
You submitted your film to Indy Film Library through our Saturday Matinees service – aimed at helping filmmakers who cannot pay festival fees for various reasons. What is the situation like for filmmakers in Cuba trying to get their work shown international?
The simple fact of making films in Cuba is complicated. The financial situation is a disaster, and many decide to emigrate. Having the film strength is a challenge. The government has several channels to support independent filmmaking through funding, but I tried, and it was impossible. If I didn’t belong as a director to the film institute, I couldn’t apply as a director to the fund. how can I apply as a director if I have never directed before? Things that nobody understands about the system.
Basically, to make a budget and without support work that does not pass any legal barrier to then be able to apply to be recognized as a director at the institute so I can then apply to the film fund with a project that contains a team of people equal to the institute. It’s a headache. And then, if I don’t want to have my short film in a drawer, I must submit it to international film festivals, because in Cuba there are few festivals. Luckily, now we have access to the Internet, and I can use platforms like Filmfreeway and Festhome, because before I didn’t know how they used to distribute it.
Then comes another problem: the sanctions imposed by the United States against Cuba prevent us from accessing certain sites and we can’t use any method of transactions or payments. If the minimum wage in Cuba is $10 a month and by chance, I had the opportunity to spend all that salary entering a short film in a film festival, I still can’t do it. The only thing left for me to do is to sign up for festivals with free entry or apply for a fee waiver.
Not everyone understands the situation, but many have reached out to me, and I will be eternally grateful to them. And especially to Indy Film Library for creating a space for filmmakers in a similar situation and for conducting this interview (the first I have done) because no one in the film industry in Cuba still knows that I exist.
What’s next for you? Are there any new projects in the pipeline?
I am currently developing a documentary feature film project entitled La Película de Héctor, based on my childhood memories, marked by homophobia and the incomprehension of living in a backward town. I have other projects that I will develop, but that will take time. Now I am applying for funding and film labs to move forward.
I was part of the Documentary Incubator for Project Development at the International Film and TV School (EICTV) taught by filmmaker Luis Alejandro Yero (Calls from Moscow). I was selected as one of the 12 artists who will be part of the DIP 2024 lab organized by Manuel Abramovich (La Reina, Pornomelancholia); this is a tremendous opportunity that will propel me in my career.
I will still apply and whether I am selected or not, whether I get the money or not, I will shoot my feature film in December of this year, and it could be ready by mid-2025. What were once dreams are now realities.
Where can people find more of your work? I promote all my work through my social networks, especially Instagram. My account is @almeidattor and my short film account is @para__esteban. The short film is still in distribution and will remain so until November of this year. The next screening will be during the Apatzingán International Film Festival from February 29th to March 3rd in Mexico and the premiere in Havana on March 31st at La Fábrica de Arte. After the distribution of Para Esteban is finished, you will be able to watch it on YouTube. In the meantime, you can follow the account to be aware of possible free online screenings or screenings in your country.