Miguel Coyula

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Miguel Coyula
Miguel Coyula (2022).jpg
Miguel Coyula in 2022
Born
Miguel Coyula Aquino

(1977-03-31) 31 March 1977 (age 46)
Havana, Cuba
CitizenshipCuba, Spain
Occupation(s)Filmmaker, writer
Years active1996–present

Miguel Coyula Aquino (born March 31, 1977, in Havana) is a Cuban filmmaker and writer. Working with a multi-disciplinary approach, his films usually take several years to complete. He has been described by critics as a virtuoso [1] and an innovator. [2] The multi-layered narratives of his films often deal with alienation, they contain graphic depictions of sexuality, and frontal criticism of society and politicians. The controversial nature of his work has resulted in the banning of his work in Cuba, although it has also suffered censorship in Argentina, [3] Belarus, Morocco, and Beirut. [4] The press usually refers to him as the enfant terrible of Cuban Cinema. [5]

Contents

At age 17, he made his first short with a VHS camcorder, which led to his admittance to Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television (The International Film and Television School) of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. In 2001, he received a scholarship at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. While attending the Strasberg Institute, Coyula made his first feature, Red Cockroaches (2003), for less than $2000 over a two-year period. The film was described by Variety as "a triumph of technology in the hands of a visionary with know-how..." [6] The film won over twenty awards in film festivals around the world.

In 2009, Coyula was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship by The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for developing his second feature, the film Memories of Overdevelopment (2010), a follow-up to the Cuban classic Memorias del Subdesarrollo (1968), based on the novel by Cuban writer Edmundo Desnoes. After its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival , the film garnered several awards and honors. The International Film Guide described it as one of the best films Cuba has produced. [7] In 2013 La Pereza Ediciones published his first novel Mar Rojo, Mal Azul. From 2015 to the 2016 he produced the web Series Rafael Alcides and the documentary feature Nobody (2017) which won the Best Documentary award at the Global Film Festival in Santo Domingo. His latest feature Blue Heart (2021), was filmed over ten years in Havana, premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival and won the Hollywood Foreign Press Association award at the Guadalajara International Film Festival . Cineaste described the film as "...the culminating point of Coyula's artistic growth. It stands as his most visceral experience..." [8]

His second novel, La Isla Vertical was published in 2022 by Ediciones Deslinde in Madrid.

Filmography

Books

Awards and nominations

Blue Heart

Memories of Overdevelopment

Memorias del Desarrollo has won 20 awards, including:

Red Cockroaches

Red Cockroaches has won 23 awards, including:

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Memories of Underdevelopment</i> 1968 Cuban film

Memories of Underdevelopment is a 1968 Cuban drama film directed and co-written by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The story is based on a novel by Edmundo Desnoes entitled Inconsolable Memories. It was Gutiérrez Alea's fifth film, and probably his most famous worldwide.

Edmundo Desnoes was a Cuban writer and author of the novel Memorias del subdesarrollo, a complex story depicting the alienation of a Cuban bourgeois intellectual struggling to adapt to the process of the Revolution staying on the island after his family decides to leave the country. He originally called the work Inconsolable Memories in the first English edition. The book was adapted in 1968 into the seminal Cuban film of the same title Memorias del Subdesarrollo by the director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, the name by which it is also known in English.

<i>Red Cockroaches</i> 2003 film

Red Cockroaches is a film released in 2003. This feature film was the debut production of Miguel Coyula and was the result of a two-year effort on a $2,000 budget. Shot entirely using a portable digital camcorder and edited on a home computer, Red Cockroaches is an example of DIY cinema. In its review, Variety called it a "A triumph of technology in the hands of a visionary with know-how..." It is the first of a trilogy which continues with Blue Heart (film).

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References

  1. "Otros modos de hacer cine". 80 Grados. 2013-03-01.
  2. "Intertextualidad, alienación y desarraigo en Memorias del Desarrollo". Cadal. 2020-03-01. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  3. "El Ministerio de relaciones exteriores cancela proyección de Nadie". Diario de Cuba. 2021-08-01. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  4. "Cuba imita a Iran en la censura de cineastas". Creatividad Internacional. 2021-08-01. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  5. "Blue Heart". The Film Verdict. 2021-08-01. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  6. "Red Cockroaches". Variety. 2004-08-05. Retrieved June 8, 2004.
  7. "Best Cuban Films of the year" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-06. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  8. "Miguel Coyula Aquino: Revolutionary Witness". Cineaste. 2021-05-20. Retrieved June 20, 2021.