Arturo Santana: «The cinema is an act of faith»

Cuban filmmaker Arturo Santana is in the process of postproduction of his new film Habana Selfies, which will have a special presentation in the month of November of this year in the context of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the founding of San Cristóbal de La Habana.

«I feel very happy with the actors, we had a great time and we managed to put each character and each dramatic situation on track. Filming a movie is a marathon in the Sahara and an act of faith but I'm suspiciously happy», confessed Santana at the second press conference on the film that was held at the Meliá Cohiba Hotel in Havana, managed by that hotel chain, collaborator of the film. 

«This is not the film of the 500th anniversary of the city, it is a film made on purpose and it is a gift to Havana for its birthday. It is not the 500th anniversary film because it only has six stories and a city like ours has millions of stories», the filmmaker said at the meeting.

He reiterated at the same time: «I have had the idea of ​​this script for almost ten years, since I saw all these films of the Paris franchise, je t'aime, of 2006; New York, I Love you, 2008; Rio, I Love you, 2014, and Berlin, I Love You, this year. All of them are tributes to big cities and then I wondered why we could not tell love stories of Havana perhaps with other perspectives and other ways of narrating».

However, it is not called Havana I love you, nor Havana, te quiero, it is called Habana Selfies and this is a different way of narrating love to the beautiful Cuban city where all, nationals and foreigners take Selfies.

Honoring its title, it is a film that was also born on social networks; It has been a very interesting experience to systematically show the development of its realization, based on a communication strategy that has raised great expectations about this tribute to Havana whose world premiere may possibly occur in the context of the 41st International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.

After convincing creative encounters, Santana was not convinced by any of the first proposals of maestro Germán Velazco, composer, arranger and music producer of recognized prestige, it seems that they have reached an agreement and Habana Selfies will surely count among their clearer successes with the music of Velazco in a bid to surprise with sonorities not heard until now, despite the fact that Havana has a good number of pieces dedicated to it.

About the times, one of the initial concerns of the director, he expressed that the planned program was fulfilled: «I am happy with myself, with the film I made and with the magnificent and beautiful staff I counted with. It was a completely rounded job, hilarious, demanding, full of all the risks of the world, which we also like. The film is already completely edited, it fulfills all the intentions of the script, of the production and with what I wanted ».

Later revealed:

«It's a film about the Havana that we love so much; those are daily and urban situations. It is a comedy at times romantic, contained, not explicit, without ideological patties, without too much grace for pleasure, it is just what happens to those characters in the city we want to honor.

 All the members of the performing staff and the cast who spoke agreed that Habana Selfies was a complicated but very funny movie, a wonderful experience that they thanked Santana.

On the cover: Filming in the streets of Havana. Arturo Santana, director and Iris Abreu, assistant director