Ernesto Daranas

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Ernesto Daranas Serrano
Against a dark background, Daranas leans forward on a surface while speaking and holding a digital camera.
Daranas in 2010
Born (1961-12-07) December 7, 1961 (age 62)
Havana, Cuba
Occupation(s)Filmmaker and screenwriter
Notable work

Ernesto Daranas Serrano (born December 7, 1961) is a Cuban filmmaker. Daranas' three feature films have had unprecedented success in Cuba and were submitted to the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.[1][2][3][4][5] Daranas is a Latin Grammy nominee for Best Long Form Music Video and a recipient of the King of Spain Award. His filmography includes Sergio & Sergei (2017), starring Ron Perlman, and Behavior, often considered the greatest Cuban film of the 21st century.[6]

Biography

[edit]

Ernesto Daranas Serrano was born in Havana on December 7, 1961.

His father, Manuel Ángel Daranas Valdés (1934-2000) was an actor, teacher and writer who gained national recognition as the author of the adventure radio series La flecha de cobre (The copper arrow), an audience success that was on the air for nearly a decade in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[7][8]

Ernesto Daranas' beginnings as a storyteller took place in the radio[9] while still a college student.[10][11] In 1983, he became a Bachelor in Geography at the Instituto Superior Pedagógico (now University of Educational Sciences).[12]

In the early 90's, Daranas achieved recognition for his radio soap operas addressing contemporary Cuban society in the context of the Special Period.[13]

His directorial debut in television was in 1999–2000 with La tierra más hermosa (The loveliest land), a series of 12 documentaries co-directed with Rolando Almirante.[14][15] The series explored various aspects of Cuban ethnography, culture, nature and history.

Subsequently, Daranas wrote and/or directed various films for television (see Filmography below) .

In 2004, he wrote and co-directed with Natasha Vázquez Los últimos gaiteiros de La Habana (The last bagpipers of Havana), a documentary about Eduardo Lorenzo, a nonagenarian Galician bagpiper who teaches young Cubans to play the instrument and returns to his native village in Spain after 50 years of absence.[16] This documentary won the Premio Internacional de Periodismo Rey de España (2004 edition), a prestigious Iberoamerican journalism award.[17]

Also in 2004, Daranas wrote and directed the telefilm ¿La vida en rosa?, a comedy about "the false barrier we sometimes raise between purportedly pure art and popular art".[15] It won the Grand Prize and other six awards at the First National Television Festival of Cuba.[14]

Los dioses rotos (Fallen gods) was Daranas' film directorial debut, in 2008. Daranas wrote a story, based on interviews he'd collected through the years,[18] about a university professor who gets involved in the underworld of prostitution and procuring. The film was made thanks to a fund for low budget projects[19] issued by the Ministry of Culture.[18] It was shot in a digital format and later filmed-out.[20]

The film won the Audience Award and the Film Critics Association Award at the 30th Havana Film Festival.[21][22] It became a box-office hit and the press called it "the biggest audiovisual event in Cuba of recent times"[23] and "one of the best Cuban films after 2000".[24] It was Cuba's entry to the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.[25]

In 2012, Daranas wrote and directed Bluechacha, a music EPK for Buena Vista Social Club's Manuel Galbán's last album.[26] Bluechacha was nominated that year to the XIII Latin Grammy Award, in the category of Best Long-Form Music Video.[27]

Arguably, it was Behavior (Conducta), released in 2014, the film that garnered Daranas widespread international recognition.[9][11][28]

The film tells the story of Chala, an 11-year-old boy who supports his alcoholic and drug addict mother by breeding pigeons and training fighting dogs. When his loving teacher Carmela falls ill and is temporarily replaced by an inexperienced young teacher, Chala is dispatched to a school for children with behavioral problems.[29]

The film premiered in February 2014 in Havana and then played at the Málaga Film Festival,[30] before having its US premieres simultaneously at the Chicago Latino Film Festival and Havana Film Festival New York in April 2014.[28] Behavior was then screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.[31] It was selected as the Cuban entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.[32]

The film went on to be screened in many festivals around the world and won many accolades, including a Goya nomination.[33]

In 2017, Sergio and Sergei was released, a comedy set in Cuba in 1991, describing the vicissitudes in the friendship between a Cuban ham radio enthusiast and a Soviet cosmonaut, trapped in the Mir space station during the USSR collapse.

The film was a co-production between Cuba, Spain and the United States. At the time, the press called it the first Cuba-USA narrative co-production in over 50 years,[34][35] by virtue of the presence of actor Ron Perlman in the movie and his involvement in its distribution through his indie production company Wing and a Prayer Pictures.

The film was selected as the Cuban entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.[36] However, it was not on the final list of submitted films released by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in October 2018.[37]

In a poll conducted by Cinema Tropical (the New York-based non-profit media arts organization), both Behavior and Sergio and Sergei were included among the 100 most significant Latin-American films of the 2010-2019 decade.[38]

In 2019, Daranas directed the documentary Natalia, about the noted Cuban ethnographer and writer Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui.[39][40]

Filmography

[edit]

Feature films

[edit]
Year Title Director Writer
2008 Los dioses rotos Yes Yes
2014 Behavior Yes Yes
2015 La emboscada No Yes
2017 Sergio and Sergei Yes Yes

Documentaries

[edit]
Year Title Director Writer Notes
2000 La tierra más hermosa Yes Yes Series of 12 documentaries. Co-directed with Rolando Almirante.[14]
2003 Ana y las cotorras Yes Yes Co-directed with Randol Menéndez.[41]
2004 Los últimos gaiteiros de La Habana Yes Yes Co-directed with Natasha Vázquez. Original idea by Rigoberto Senarega.
2005 Fillas de Galicia Yes Yes Co-directed with Natasha Vázquez.[42]
2009 Peregrinos Yes Yes [43]
2011 2, con Omara y Chucho (Music EPK) Yes Yes
2012 Bluechacha (Music EPK) Yes Yes [44]
2019 Natalia Yes Yes [45][46]

Films for television

[edit]
Year Title Director Writer Notes
2002 Un cuento de camino No Yes Directed by Paco Anca
2003 El hombre de Venus Yes Yes Co-directed with Charlie Medina.[15]
2003 El otro No Yes Directed by Charlie Medina.
2004 ¿La vida en rosa? Yes Yes [20]
2010 Knepp No Yes Adapted screenplay from the play by Jorge Goldenberg. Directed by Charlie Medina.[47]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ AV451, Redacción (2018-10-01). "La coproducción participada por España 'Sergio & Serguéi', elegida por Cuba para la carrera al Oscar". Audiovisual451 (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Kilday, Gregg (9 October 2014). "Oscars Attract Best Foreign-Language Film Submissions From a Record 83 Countries". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  3. ^ "Conducta". NW Film Center. 2017-06-02. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  4. ^ Aguilera, Milene (2018-10-03). "La película Sergio & Serguéi es la candidata cubana a los premios Oscar y Goya". Vistar Magazine (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  5. ^ "Academy Awards: foreign language entries". Screen Daily. 2009-09-18. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  6. ^ "Las diez mejores películas cubanas de todos los tiempos". 26 October 2020.
  7. ^ Cue Sierra, Mayra (2015-05-17). "Manuel Ángel Daranas en el recuerdo". Envivo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  8. ^ "Mario Limonta Louit, orgullo de pueblo". Radiocubana (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  9. ^ a b Sittón, Winnie T. (October 2019). "Ernesto Daranas, a born storyteller". www.panorama2go.com. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  10. ^ Rodríguez Tejeda, Yoel (2019-10-07). "Ernesto Daranas: "I've never been censored, but it has happened to many people"". OnCubaNews English. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  11. ^ a b Vargas, Andrew S. (2014-04-04). "Ernesto Daranas, Director of Smash Hit 'Conducta' on Making Films in Cuba". Remezcla. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  12. ^ "Universidad Pedagógica Enrique José Varona". University24K (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  13. ^ Valladares, Sheyla (2013-01-27). "When Ernesto Daranas was on the Radio". OnCubaNews English. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  14. ^ a b c Armas Fonseca, Paquita (2005). "¿De dónde son? De Almirante". La Jiribilla. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  15. ^ a b c Armas Fonseca, Paquita (2015-05-31). "Ernesto Daranas y Paquita Armas Fonseca conversan". Cine cubano, la pupila insomne (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  16. ^ Los últimos gaiteros de La Habana (2004) (in Spanish), retrieved 2020-07-01
  17. ^ "Premios Rey de España". Agencia EFE (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  18. ^ a b "Ernesto Daranas: "I've never been censored, but it has happened to many people"". OnCubaNews English. 2019-10-07. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  19. ^ "Ernesto Daranas, Director of Smash Hit 'Conducta' on Making Films in Cuba | Film". Remezcla. 2014-04-04. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  20. ^ a b del Río, Joel (January 2009). "Impenitente celebración de buen cine". La Jiribilla. Archived from the original on 2019-11-20. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  21. ^ "Corales del 30 Festival de Cine de La Habana". www.granma.cu. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  22. ^ "En la recta final los Premios Colaterales". www.granma.cu. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  23. ^ "Los dioses rotos, el mayor acontecimiento audiovisual en Cuba de los últimos tiempos". www.juventudrebelde.cu (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  24. ^ Armas Fonseca, Paquita (2009). "El tiempo dirá la última palabra". La Jiribilla.
  25. ^ "Academy Awards: foreign language entries". Screen. 2009-09-18. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  26. ^ "El disco Blue Cha Cha de Manuel Galván". OnCubaNews (in Spanish). 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  27. ^ "XIII Latin Grammy Awards Nominations". Latin Grammy Awards. Archived from the original on 2012-12-28.
  28. ^ a b Feinstein, Howard (2014-04-13). "Behavior (review)". Screen Daily.
  29. ^ "Conducta: Ernesto Daranas's smash hit » LaHabana.com". LaHabana.com. 2014-12-01. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  30. ^ "Palmarés oficial del 17 Festival de Málaga" (PDF). Festival de Málaga Cine Español. March 2014.
  31. ^ Cipriani, Casey (2014-08-12). "TIFF Adds 'Clouds of Sils Maria' and 'Two Days, One Night,' Reveals 5 More Lineups". IndieWire. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  32. ^ Harvey, Dennis (2015-01-16). "Film Review: 'Behavior'". Variety. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  33. ^ "Spain's Goya Awards Unveils Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  34. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (2016-10-06). "Ron Perlman On Shooting First Cuban/American Co-Production In Decades, With 'Sergio And Sergei'". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  35. ^ Rodríguez, Andrés (2016-10-25). "The Cuban-American thaw reaches outer space". EL PAÍS. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  36. ^ AV451, Redacción (2018-10-01). "La coproducción participada por España 'Sergio & Serguéi', elegida por Cuba para la carrera al Oscar". Audiovisual451 (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-07-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  37. ^ "87 COUNTRIES IN COMPETITION FOR 2018 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OSCAR". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  38. ^ "The 10 Best Latin American Films of the Decade (2010-2019)". Cinema Tropical. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  39. ^ ""Natalia", el nuevo documental de Ernesto Daranas". OnCubaNews (in Spanish). 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  40. ^ Infante, Rubén Ricardo (2019-08-22). "Las muchas vidas de Natalia Bolívar". La Jiribilla (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  41. ^ González Romero, Mileidys (14 August 2015). "Randolph Menéndez siempre se inclinó por la naturaleza". Televisión Cubana (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  42. ^ "Se estrena el documental Fillas de Galicia que retrata los años más duros de la emigración de una gallega en Cuba | Xuventude Galega | Juventud Gallega". xuventude.galiciadigital.com (in Galician). Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  43. ^ "Peregrinos se estrena en La Habana - Xunta de Galicia".
  44. ^ "Yale MacMillan Center -Latino and Iberian Film Festival". Yale MacMillan Center. April 2018. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  45. ^ "Life, Work of Natalia Bolivar Summarized in a Documentary". Radio Havana Cuba. 2019-08-20. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  46. ^ ""Natalia", el nuevo documental de Ernesto Daranas". OnCubaNews (in Spanish). 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  47. ^ "Cartelera de la TV cubana". Bohemia. 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
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