Project Link
https://shorturl.at/7g2WC

Arte libre vs censura totalitaria / Artistas en el Exilio

documentary series by Lia Villares

  • lia villares
    Director
    Minimo Gorki
  • lia villares
    Writer
  • lia villares
    Producer
  • lia villares
    Key Cast
    "lia"
  • ciro j díaz
    Key Cast
    "ciro"
  • amaury pacheco del monte
    Key Cast
    "omnipoeta"
  • iris ruiz
    Key Cast
    "iris"
  • luis eligio pérez
    Key Cast
    "omni luis eligio"
  • michel matos
    Key Cast
    "michel"
  • adrian monzon
    Key Cast
    "adrian"
  • alina guzmán
    Key Cast
    "alina"
  • nilo julián gonzález preval
    Key Cast
    "nilo"
  • hilda landrove
    Key Cast
    "hilda"
  • armando añel
    Key Cast
    "armando"
  • hamlet lavastida
    Key Cast
    "hamlet"
  • david d omni
    Key Cast
    "david d omni"
  • gorki águila
    Key Cast
    "gorki"
  • arsenio rodríguez quintana
    Key Cast
    "arsenio"
  • katherine bisquet
    Key Cast
    "kathy"
  • camila lobón
    Key Cast
    "camila"
  • ahmel echevarría
    Key Cast
    "ahmel"
  • Adrian Monzon
    camera
    Rotilla Festival
  • David D Omni
    music
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Television, Web / New Media
  • Runtime:
    10 hours 38 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 11, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Cuba
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Distribution Information
  • Youtube
    Distributor
    Country: United States
    Rights: Internet
Director Biography - lia villares

Lia Villares (Havana, 1984)

liavillares@gmail.com / +1 786 556 4796

Artivist. Writer. Musician. Documentalist.

Graduated in guitar from the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory in Havana, 2000.

She studied musical composition at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) in Havana, 2002-2005. She cultivates photography, design and audiovisuals on a freelance basis.

She is a human rights defender and cultural promoter.

She was part of the technical-creative team of the independent project Estado de Sats, as webmaster, designer, editor, director, curator and photographer, together with these and other activism tasks as part of the Campaign for another Cuba (2013).

She was a member of the protest punk-rock band Porno Para Ricardo from 2014 to 2017.

She collaborated with the Hannah Arendt Artivism Institute and the CubaDecide binding plebiscite proposal.

She was co-creator and curator of the alternative exhibition space house-gallery El Círculo, together with the artist Luis Trápaga. El Círculo was the headquarters of CubaRaw, an autonomous Cuban photography agency founded by photographers Claudio Fuentes and OLPL in 2009 and directed by Lia from 2013 to 2018.

In 2018, she was the victim of a surprise search/raid by State Security, where she lost all of his audiovisual work and personal memories. After a long restriction on leaving the country, in 2018 she was allowed to leave the Island, experienced by the artist as a forced political exile.

Since then she has lived in political exile, in Miami, with no possibility of return. Since 2020 she worked at the NGO Cubalex, as a program officer and director of communications and content, until 2023. In 2023 she won one of the 4 Mellon Foundation scholarships for persecuted academics from Florida International University.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

...in the hunger of yesterday that today hungry we condemn
in the past humiliation that today, humiliated, we denounce.
In yesterday's censorship that today, gagged, we point out...

Reinaldo Arenas
Introduction of the symbol of faith
Central Manuel Sanguily. Northern Consolation. Pinar del Río. May 1970

They have buried me.
They have danced on me.
They have compacted the ground well.
They're gone, they're gone, leaving me dead and buried.
This is my moment.

Reinaldo Arenas
Will to live manifesting
Morro Prison. Havana, 1975

It is not common knowledge about Cuba - as Amnesty International has belatedly pointed out - that exercising freedom of expression on the island can land you in jail.

As an artivist I have experienced constant harassment from state power, censorship and imprisonment for exercising and defending my freedom of expression, both in public and private spaces.

I have been persecuted just for wanting to participate in the cultural life of my country, just for wanting to create freely.

I have campaigned for freedom of expression and physical freedom for imprisoned and censored artists.

Those are my crimes.

This "rebellion" has cost me forced political exile, family separation and my mother not knowing her granddaughters, 6 years later.

I have been persecuted and finally expelled from my country basically for defending the freedom not only of myself but of all Cubans.

Like so many Cuban defenders of freedom, since the totalitarian side came to power in the 60s, I have been denied the right to return to my homeland.

Totalitarianism, whatever its geography, fears art because its ability to communicate social reality challenges established power and inspires free proposals.

In turn, art is used as propaganda and critical artists are repressed, forcing them to self-censor to avoid isolation and institutional repression.

Art, however, can and should be an engine of resistance, promoting dialogue and freedom in society on a permanent basis.