51 MALECON
Canada, 2016
Spanish with English subtitles/ 42′
Directors: Jean-Guillaume Caplain & Francis Delfour
Sat-Sept,3
5:30 PM | The Cinematheque
(preceded by Acá Nada/Acá Elsewhere)
I’m telling you this story as people tell it on the street.
Havana. Cuba. The most bizarre and unexpected building in the city. A fourteen-storey tower that stands on the seafront boulevard, like a white monolith planted in the heart of the old colonial district. Strange tales are told about it. Gloomy gossip. Inside, the sounds of Cuban life echo in the stairwell. The old cleaning lady is talking to herself again. Pipes are leaking. The phone line is dead. As Cuba is bracing for a radical change, 51 Malecón comes as a snapshot of a society somehow stuck in time. Waiting for something to happen. Waiting.
Winner of the Best Caribbean Film Award at the 2016 Martinique International Film Festival
“A visually stunning cinematic poem to an architectural structure that holds within it the stories of an era.”
La Habana, Cuba. El edificio más extraño e inesperado de la ciudad. Una torre de 14 pisos se encuentra en el malecón, como un monolito blanco plantado en el corazón de un zona colonial. Del edificio salen historias, chismes. Por dentro, el sonido de la vida cubana hace eco en sus escaleras. La señora que hace el aseo está hablando con ella misma, como siempre. Las pipas estan goteando. La línea del teléfono muerta. Mientra Cuba se acerca a un cambio radical, 51 Malecón funciona como una fotografía fija de una sociedad atorada en el tiempo, esperando a que pase algo, esperando.
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Writers/Producers/Cinematographers/Editors: Jean-Guillaume Caplain & Francis Delfour
Music: Guy Dubuisson & Blaise Margail
Additional editing: Hubert Hayaud
Francis Delfour (Montreal, 1975) is a director, cinematographer and screenwriter. His films include: Mister Sabbagh (2006), Rapayan (2008), and The American Tiger (2012). He is currently working on a project to be shot in Iraq in 2017. Born in France, Jean-Guillaume Caplain moved to Canada in 1996. He directed, The Last Walk, which was screened in major film festivals. Twilight of a Land, his second documentary was awarded Best Communication film by the Canadian Archaeological Association. He now shares his life between organic winemaking in Touraine, France, and filmmaking.
https://vimeo.com/118261756
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