VIVA EL LENTE

By Natasha Block Hicks

(LONG LIVE THE LENS)

50km outside Havana – the colourful capital of Cuba – a hub of creativity simmers in the balmy countryside of San Antonio de Los Baños. Founded in 1986 by Colombian journalist and author Gabriel García Márquez, Cuban theoreticians and filmmakers

Julio García Espinosa and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, and Argentine poet and filmmaker Fernando Birri, the Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV) is a film school that cultivates, protects and promotes the techniques, culture and aesthetics of Latin American cinema.

Past ‘Eictvians’ – as students at the school are known – include Spanish director/writer/producer Jaime Rosales, recipient of the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes 2003 for feature Las Horas Del Día (2003, DP Óscar Durán AEC); Bolivian DP Daniela Cajías AEC, winner of the 2021 Goya Award for Best Cinematography for her lighting of feature film Las Niñas/Schoolgirls (2020, dir. Pilar Palomero); and Brazilian documentary director/DP Eryk Rocha, who was recognised with the Golden Eye Award at Cannes 2016 for the feature montage documentary Cinema Novo (2016).

York Neudal, a German DP, documentary filmmaker and film festival organiser, who is himself an alumnus of EICTV, heads-up the Cinematography

Department. He talked to us via Google Meet, as on-going US sanctions block Cuban access to Zoom, a reminder of the tension that continues to bristle between the two countries.

“I only intended to do an exchange programme, so I came to Cuba for six months,” Neudal relates of his own studies at EICTV, “but I liked it so much that I decided to stay.”

Although short and online courses are also offered, the ‘central column’ of the school is the Regular Course: a three-year, undergraduate-level diploma culminating, for cinematography students, in a 20-minute thesis fiction film and a 30-minute documentary.

Students of the Regular Course undertake a foundation in filmmaking across all disciplines in the first year, then break away into their chosen specialisations in year two. Part of the student DPs’ early education involves honing a sense of the body’s relationship to the camera.

“They dance with the camera,” illustrates Neudal, “to develop that feeling.”

The cinematography track encompasses both the practise and theory of the field.

“Student DPs learn about optics, physics and mathematics,” explains Neudal, “and they also cover operating and documentary cinematography: how to react quickly when circumstances develop suddenly in front of the camera.”

Eictvians team-up across the disciplines at the end of the second year on a pre-thesis fiction short, a precursor to the longer thesis films which occupy their third year. These final, crossdepartment projects are the culmination of everything students have absorbed during their time at the school.

The majority of teaching is delivered as workshops and masterclasses by industry professionals from around the world, with tutors changing every two weeks.

“It is very interesting for students,” explains Neudal, “because although there might be some repetition on the topics, you always have it from a different point-of-view.”

We teach students how to ‘think cinematography’ and how to improvise

Professionals delivering the third year ‘Masters Of Light’ workshop, for instance, have included US-based DP Roberto Schaefer ASC AIC, known for The Kite Runner (2007, dir. Marc Forster), French cinematographer Agnès Godard AFC, highlyrespected for her collaboration with director Claire Denis on films such as Beau Travail (1999), and the late Michael Chapman ASC, famous for his lighting of Taxi Driver (1976, dir. Martin Scorsese). Acclaimed British DP Oliver Stapleton BSC, co-head of cinematography at the NFTS, has visited EICTV in 2023 to deliver a second-year lighting workshop, as has DP Franz Pagot OMRI AIC.

These international names may be dazzling, but EICTV is careful in upholding its mission to be a vanguard of South American filmmaking ideas and technique.

“We always invite filmmakers who can show students how Latin American cinema works,” states Neudal, referring not just to home-grown DPs such as Mauro Herce, winner of Best Cinematography at the 2020 Goya Awards for O Que Arde/ Fire Will Come (2019, dir. Óliver Laxe), and the aforementioned alumna Daniela Cajías, but also filmmakers such as German DP Hans Burmann, whose CV is awash with Spanish-language films including projects shot in Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, such as Amnesia (1994, dir. Gonzalo Justiniano).

“The main aim is to build a Latin American language in cinematography,” clarifies Neudal.

This principle is at play in the selection of EICTV’s student body. Students hail from both South/Central America and much further afield, but the selection process focusses on their suitability to fit in at EICTV and engage with the artistry and temperament of Latin American filmmaking in general.

“Our students are very heterogeneous, but there is a certain way of thinking – a ‘spirit’ – that they all share together,” explains Neudal.

“This is what I consider when looking at applications. They have to be intelligent, they have to be critical, and it’s very important for us that our students are not just soldiers in industrial cinematography; they also have to have their own mind.”

Potential applicants are expected to have undertaken two years of higher education studies, in any subject area, before applying for the Regular Course. The EICTV entrance examination takes place inside the relevant embassy for the student’s country of origin (listed on EICTV’s website) followed by an online interview. Five new students are chosen every year for each of the eight disciplines which make up the Regular Course: Directing Fiction, Directing Documentary, Production, Screenwriting, Television and New Media, Cinematography, Sound and Editing.

Students entering EICTV can expect to “inhale the art of cinema” during their time at the school. On a rural campus, away from the distractions of urban life, Eictvians begin their studies at 9am and are in classes or workshops until 5pm. After an hour’s meal-break they attend one of the school’s two cinemas, of 100 and 40 seats respectively, to watch and dissect movies through the evening with the visiting tutors. Everything is catered for on-site, with single en-suite rooms, meals, access to an Olympicsized swimming pool, a gym and playing fields all included in the €6000/annum course fees.

Locarno International Film Festival for its director and star Wara. Experimental short Terranova (2021) took awards at both the 2022 Camden and 2021 Rotterdam International Film Festivals for its directors Alejandro Pérez Serrano and Alejandro Alonso. Columbian director/DP Manuel Mateo Gómez’s documentary Ánima (2022) was recognised with the award for Best Latin American Short Film at Argentina’s 37th Mar del Plata International Film Festival in 2022. Relationships and networks built at EICTV extend far beyond graduation, with students continuing to work together as they enter the industry at large, and visiting tutors remembering the diligence and inventiveness nurtured by the school.

“One aim of EICTV is to have a network here in Latin America,” says Neudal, “but connections develop anywhere there is a more independent style of filmmaking. For instance, there is a huge community of our ex-students in Spain where there is more money to make films.

Although modest by Western standards, this fee may still be prohibitive to some students, particularly South American candidates which EICTV wishes to attract. To support these students, various national scholarships are available, including one offered by Ibermedia –the development programme whose objective is to strengthen the Ibero-American audiovisual market –which covers up to 50% of the cost.

Students learn their craft on ARRI Alexa Classic, Blackmagic Ursa, Sony FS5 and Panasonic 4K AG-DVX200 cameras, plus the school owns a number of 35mm and 16mm cameras like ARRI SRII and Aaton, including one example once used by Akira Kurosawa. Students can process and experiment with 35/16mm film onsite in the EICTV laboratory.

“We also have optics of every kind,” adds Neudal, “lots of tripods, a doorway dolly, mini jib and lamps from 4K HMI downwards.”

There is a TV studio with a multi-camera system and mixing room, six sound postproduction stations with Pro Tools, ten editing rooms, plus two colour grading rooms with Assimilate Scratch and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve. Neudal hints that the economic conditions in Cuba mean that EICTV’s cameras may be older models and school facilities are maintained on a shoestring, however he stresses that it is what students do with the equipment they have that really matters.

“We teach them how to ‘think cinematography’ and how to improvise,” he explains. “The visiting professors are astonished when they see what’s going on here.”

The proof is in the pudding. Eictvians hold their own in international film festival competitions, with student film Soberane/Sovereign (2022, DPs Emmanuel Guerrero & Camilla Lapa) scooping the Golden Leopards Of Tomorrow prize at the 2022

“But I think our graduates would have perfect chances in the industry anywhere, even in Hollywood,” he concludes, “because they’re quick and they’re good.”