Its first president, Gabriel García Márquez, said on December 4, 1986, that the ultimate goal was "nothing less than to achieve the integration of Latin American cinema. It was that simple, and that excessive." That day marked the inauguration of the headquarters—in Quinta Santa Bárbara, Cuba—of the New Latin American Cinema Foundation, which had been created exactly one year earlier. Fidel Castro, the "least known filmmaker in the world," also in the words of Gabo, was there, promoting the project.
It was a time when continental dreams were being considered and made possible, recalled one of the founders, Colombian filmmaker Lisandro Duque, on Monday at the event marking the Foundation's 40th anniversary, which was attended by, among other authorities and personalities, Yuniasky Crespo Baquero, head of the Ideological Department of the Party's Central Committee, and Inés María Chapman Waugh, deputy prime minister.
On the occasion, the Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso, stressed the importance of this institution as a space for resistance, cultural diversity, and debate, as well as the Cuban state's political will to support it, which he said is an expression of the importance that the Revolution attaches to culture.
It was an appropriate moment to pay tribute to those who started it all and to those who strive every day to recapture the founding spirit—an imponderable, according to the minister. For this reason, filmmaker and professor Verónica Córdova, representing the Foundation's Superior Council and Board of Directors, dedicated yellow butterflies (in a clear reference to García Márquez) to Fidel, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution, and Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Party's Central Committee and President of the Republic, among other individuals and institutions.
Likewise, the New Latin American Film Festival awarded an Honor Coral to Alquimia Peña Cedeño, who was executive secretary and general director of the Foundation. The Jesús Menéndez Medal was also awarded to the founder, Lucía Martínez Dreke, and the Distinction for National Culture was awarded to Verónica Córdova.
Alberto Marrero, the current director, received the awards given to the Foundation, the International Film and Television School, and the Venezuelan government, represented by its Deputy Minister of Audiovisual Culture, Sergio Arria.
