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Roots and Culture

Many stories live around and in Gloria that are now only sketches, projects, because there is no doubt that this woman creator is in full possession of techniques and esthetics and knows how to tell stories. She does so from inside their essence and through the presence of our historic and cultural roots. For this, in Oggun is the aroma of the eternal, the human poetry of those who have given life to the Cuban nation, sap and light, blood and spirit, voices far and yet near of ancestors who left us a way of being.

To take on the rescue of this heritage, as others have done, and to continue this direction has been a constant motivation for this movie maker. Gloria submerges herself in this universe not with a cold look at what attracts only by being unknown, or seeking the externals of the folklore, in her weighs a feeling of love, which brings her to express, availing herself of images with sound, all the authenticity of the black race, which, side by side with the white, has given us our own face.

Within the fiction genre, she has had varied experiences as assistant director. We can talk of "No hay sabado sin sol," by Manuel Herrera, "Maluala," by Sarge Giral, and "Habanera, by Pastor Vega, but her main interest for now is in the documentary as a means of taking on reality, investigating, interpreting, and mobilizing. She believes firmly in the expressive powers of this genre, sometimes undervalued, which nevertheless can touch deeply the inner fibers of the viewer and establish an enriching relationship as well as an unfolding of reflection and critical analysis on various questions.

I am Gloria

This Habanera, with the head of an African queen, has a great light in her eyes. She has traveled from north to south with her documentary on Oggun, and her words have been heard in important universities.

• "I was born in our capital’s Chinatown, and not long ago, I photographed the house of Stripes and Dragons, that is the house of my memories, of my dreams, where I began my piano classes and where I first knew kisses of love.

• I finished up my music, and did a very special kind of university because I was a good while in El Escambray; there I really learnt the value of the path I chose in Art History. In this workspace the direction given me by Doctor Graciella Pogolotti and also that of Helmo Hernandez was fundamental. In the Escambray, we linked up with Sarge Corrien, we threw ourselves into the socio-economic problems of the place, and, afterwards, we created with these themes works for the stage. We also made theater for children, and so life itself revealed to me the social function of art.

• I came to film a little by chance and I had to start from zero to then learn this language so specific to the Seventh Art. I did scripts, I was assistant director to Santiago Villafuerte, Rigoberto Lopez Pego, Rogelio Paris, Enrique Colina, and Santiago Alvarez, among others.

• For me it has been equally important to enter the world of Africa as to understand the Caribbean. The Casa de las Americas was a bridge for contracts with the great Caribbean writers, the great thinkers, and all this multi-colored universe, where real wonders are present."
  

Sara: another dream

One of Gloria’s dearest longings is a documentary on Sara Gomez, a movie maker who is all of a legend. Gloria has already written the script of this work because she feels the urgency of it: Sarita, plagued by her asthma, with her words, her moving human images marks our cinema.

• "I think Sara lives not only in the works she made but also in many intellectuals who had the opportunity to know her well, to share ideas and the miracles of life. I do not pretend to make a her biography, but to seek out this spirituality through those who tasted of her friendship. I am interested in those moments which defined her as a moviemaker and a woman of her time.
  
• In my judgment, Cuban film has never had as in "De cierta manera" a couple so polemically based as the white woman teacher and the mulato who wanted to be abakua, but one must also take into account the integrationist vision that Sarita had of Cuban society, as well as this very presence of the people from the barrio who you have to take into account in every revolutionary process because not everything is in black or white, nor is it a real solution to move the inhabitants from a marginal neighborhood, there is tradition, customs, with all their positive and negative charge and Sara had that sharp documentary eye to project reality.

• In addition, I firmly believe that up to now no other film maker has created a series of documentaries which shows the way so tightly, so clearly to a full length film of the characteristics of "De cierta manera," so because of this I plan, within the film, a re-encounter with this singular woman."

Gloria Rolando intends to rescue zones and personalities from our popular culture, tearing away the mist of oblivion which even now surround deeds and people. After "Oggun: el eterno presente," which has received such a good reception from critics as well as the public, she is putting herself into an ambitious project: a documentary on Sara Gomez, for which she is hoping to get financial support.

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