by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
At eight years old, filmmaker Hector Cruz was familiar with the famous image of Che Guevara's face. In 1997 he discovered the Cuban photographer who took this photograph - Alberto Korda.
Korda was a fashion photographer prior to documenting the Cuban Revolution.
"In the '50s he was a fantastic fashion photographer in Cuba," Cruz said. "Fidel Castro knew that, so he hired him."
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Cruz's film "KordaVision" will play as part of the Sin Fronteras Film Festival this weekend.
Korda was Castro's personal photographer for 10 years, molding his public identity through the lens.
"So he came from two different worlds," Cruz said. "He came from one really completely different world, the world of capitalism, the world of fashion, of advertising, of models, and then in '59 he flipped into becoming a photojournalist who captured the first part of the revolution."
In "KordaVision," his first feature-length documentary, Cruz documents the last three years of Korda's life from 1998 until his 2001 death in Paris.
"In '98 I was hired by the Vatican to go shoot the arrival of the Pope in Cuba," Cruz said.
"It was historical. Fidel allowed a religious leader to come down and form a public mass."
He said it was on the last day of the Pope's visit that he met Korda.
"When I arrived there on the last day of the visit it was in the Plaza de la Revolucion," he said. "And I saw John Paul II, I saw Fidel Castro, I saw Gabriel Garcia Marquez, all together with a million Cubans in the plaza, and at that same moment I see Alberto Korda together with them."
Cruz said he took this as a sign that he needed to do something bigger than simply appreciate Korda's art. Although he wasn't making the documentary at the time, he shot footage of his meeting Korda along with the Pope driving by the crowds.
"I was among the crowd - I wasn't set up with like CNN or any of those other podiums, so I was more of an individual," he said. "I was shooting a real in-your-face documentary, so to speak."
He said it took a year for Cruz to be fully comfortable around him. Every time he went to Cuba or followed Korda to a gallery opening, he would open up a little bit more.
"For example, I went to London to film his birthday in an exhibit at the Royal Theatre," Cruz said. "When I was there I found out that he was suing Smirnoff for usage of his Che Guevara image. I didn't know about that. So those are the kinds of developments that were added to the documentary after the fact."
Cruz said he approached the film from Korda's point of view.
"I never interjected any questions," he said. "I did give him directorial passages to reflect on certain things, but you would never hear me or see me in the documentary until you see a small portion of me reuniting all the photographers."
Near the end of the film he reunites Castro with his former personal photographers.
"I told myself I couldn't finish this film without Fidel Castro in it," he said. "So I submitted a piece of the documentary to him. I submitted a letter of intent. I asked him to be in my documentary, and he said yes."
He called the experience of getting them all together surreal.
"It was unbelievable - they were all nervous," he said. "They were the guys who helped him create an identity of the revolution in that first part of that epic era."
He said they were soon joking around together.
"It's a side of Fidel Castro that you will never see in your entire life," he said. "It's more of a human side - friendly guy with his buddies."
Cruz is also proud of the musical score.
"I was able to get Leo Brouwer, the most famous Cuban maestro composer of Cuba, to do an original score for the movie," he said.
He said Korda never got to see the end result of the film because he died before it was finished.
"You actually see his death on the documentary - well, not his actual death, but you see him at the funeral in an open casket," he said. "I really didn't know how to react. It just kind of blindsided me because I wanted him to see this completed piece. He did see half of it, and he really enjoyed it. But it was really heartbreaking."
"KordaVision" has won awards at film festivals in Beverly Hills and San Francisco. It has been shown in 17 festivals around the world. Cruz plans to enter it into the Sundance Film Festival this year.
There will be a question-and-answer session with Cruz after the screening. He said anyone who wants to go out for a drink to discuss the film or photography is welcome to join.
