Film is as hot as dance in Cuba. So when Eva Tarr Kirkhope arrived in a Britain unaware of her country's work, she launched a Latin American film festival to show us a few new moves.
Clive King. The Sunday Times. UK. August 19 2000
When Eva Tarr Kirkhope, director of the Latin American Film Festival, first arrived in London in 1980 she was horrified to find herself cut off from the vibrant cinematic tradition of her native Cuba. "I found it impossible that, in order to see a Latin American movie, I had to go to Paris
and watch dubbed versions," explains Kirkhope in a smoky Havana accent that belies her 20 years on these shores.
"My husband (the late Tony Kirkhope, founder of the Metro cinema in Rupert Street) shared my passion so we decided to start the festival to bring these films to a London audience."
That first event in 1990 consisted of just 12 titles shown over a few days. "It was a big success with filmgoers but we lost a lot of money," recalls Kirkhope.
The couple perservered and as the festival grew, giving British audiences their first glimpse of such disparate delights as Like Water for Chocolate and The Buena Vista Social Club, it swiftly became one of the world's leading showcases for films from the Spanish-speaking countries - largely
thanks to Kirkhope's unerring eye for movies that will play well over here.
"Because I've lived in London for so long, I know what will resonate with the British public," she explains. "I look for films with a universal edge. People like to see stories that are different, yet familiar - to see men and women who live in a very different world but
experience the same hopes and dreams."
This year's crop, culled from Kirkhope's annual tour of festivals in Brazil and Cuba and the hundreds of tapes submitted each year, is headlined by Salsa, directed by Joyce Sherman Buñuel (a distant relation of the surreal director, Luis).
Reflecting Kirkhope's conviction that films don't have to come from Latin America to have a Latin sensibility, it is set in Paris and tells the tale of a classical pianist who is bewitched by the beat of salsa and dreams of joining a Cuban band. A huge hit in France, it features a barnstorming
performance from the Cuban band Sierra Maestra, who are scheduled to visit the UK this autumn.
Kirkhope is justly proud of the vigorous partying that takes place around the festival each year and music, as always, plays a major part in the programme. A Paradise Under the Stars (featuring Thais Valdes, left), hailed as a Cuban Strictly Ballroom, sets the story of a would-be nightclub
dancer to an infectious selection of contemporary Cuban sounds. The rites-of-passage movie Barrio offers the tantalising prospect of a Spanish rap soundtrack and The King of Rock'n'Roll takes us behind the scenes with El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, and his tongue-in-cheek mission to promote safe sex and
anti-racism issues through the medium of re-worked Presley classics - sample You Ain't Nuthin' But a Chihuahua. The magnificent Spanish actress Carmen Maura, the estranged muse of the Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar, appears in Enthusiasm, a Chilean drama directed by Ricardo P. Larrain
(La Frontera).
There are British premieres of cautionary tales from both Argentina and Brazil. Brain Drain charts the adventures of two youths whose shared dreams of waving adios to Argentina has disastrous consequences. In Maua, The Emperor and the King, a penniless orphan becomes the richest man in Rio and
learns that with power comes envy and resentment.
The documentary line-up for 2000 includes The Faithful Dead, a sumptuous celebration of the Mexican tradition of The Day of the Dead, and the Argentine offering Everyday Stories, incorporating thought-provoking testimonies from the children of the "disappeared". "My mission for
next year's festival is to include animation," Kirkhope declares. "British cinemagoers still resist animated work. They think cartoons are just for kids, or for Hollywood, but I am determined to challenge that."
In 1997 the festival was dealt a severe blow when Tony Kirkhope died, aged just 47. Although she says most of the following year was "a blur" Kirkhope decided to proceed with the festival as a memorial to her husband. "The most horrible thing you can imagine is to go to bed with
the person you love and wake up to find him dead beside you," she says, quietly. "The only thing that kept me together was my responsibility to continue his work. In a way, all people involved in the festival became my bereavement counsellors."
Although the festival has gone from strength to strength artistically, Kirkhope confesses that it is still a struggle financially and bemoans the lack of arts funding and commercial sponsorship for film-related ventures. "So much of the money available seems to go to the opera or the
ballet," she complains. "Film is seen as a lesser art."
Now one of Britain's leading experts on Latin American cinema, Kirkhope plans a book on the subject. She may have to include a chapter on herself. As a teenager in Havana she was active in the Cuban underground movement, writing and appearing in films highlighting the situation of black people
in Castro's supposedly egalitarian society. Lately, she confesses, she has been considering a return to film-making, as a producer. "It scares me," she admits. "But that's what makes it exciting."
The Latin American Film Festival runs from September 1-14 at the Metro, 11 Rupert Street, London W1 (020-7734 1506), and other venues around London. | 