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"Havana Surf" an Interview with Rodrigo Diaz McVeigh

By Denise Kaminsky

"Havana Surf" is a documentary about the surfing culture in Cuba. Surfing's material and political issues struggle as well as the exploration of its un-surfed swells. This documentary also highlights the website www.havanasurf-cuba.com and its Australian founder Bob Samin who was just recently appointed Surf Coach for the Cuban National Team. I focused on interviewing five Surfers from Havana and then took them on a surf trip all around the Oriental Cuban Coasts.

About how many days did it take to shoot the film?

I shot "Havana Surf" over different periods of time but all together, I have 14 hours of high definition footage for this project.

I'm currently working with StruendofilmMakers a production company in Madrid, Spain to try to get the documentary picked up.

Is the film scheduled to be released on DVD and will it be screened at any film festivals?

Recently, we have found someone that's interested in distributing Havana Surf.

My main goal is to get it in on time for the Havana Film Festival in mid December I am a big fan of this festival and I feel that the organizer Alfredo Guevara has done an amazing job to give Cuba one of Latin Americas best Film Festivals.

I enjoyed the trailer of "Havana Surf" and the music; tell me something about the music you used?

For the original soundtrack, I used one of my Father's recordings called Vino Una Ola (Along Came the Wave) which was a hit in Europe in 1968. Then while in Havana, I asked some local musicians to record 12 songs of different traditional Cuban genres but each one with the Le Motif of Vino Una Ola. When I returned to Miami, I then mixed and mastered the music with Adrian Posse who is a great Argentinean Music Producer and specializes in Latin music. I would also like to say thank you to Guitarist "Jako" who was my guitar teacher in Cuba and really deserves all the credit for the sound track he gathered the musicians and wrote the music and found a studio for us to record in at local price.

Tell me about the film crew?

First off I would like to thank Reinier and Orieta Valdes-Prado my distant cousins who where crucial in pre-production and who I could trust like a brother and sister. I would also like to thank Pedro and Jose who I met in Escuela Internacional de Cine y TeleVision in a documentary course with Octavio Cortazar as our professor. They worked for TeleVision Serrana, which is one of Cuba's best television stations known for its good documentary's and novellas while being in the isolated Sierra Maestra. They came along willingly just to get the opportunity to work with a high definition camera along with a free ride back to Bayamo.

A lot of hard work was put together to make the film happen for which I am pleased.

What are your plans for the future?

I am planning on completing Havana Surf, finishing up a new script that myself and my film partner Van Alpert have just begun, as well our dream production company Dial Entertainment. I have a Plutonic music video to edit and I am also transferring to the University Of Miami School Of Communications Motion Picture Program this fall to complete my education.

One last questions, what would you like most out of life?

I would like to prove my theory that no human is all good or all evil, that we are imperfect and we must communicate and have peaceful dialogue between societies while respecting other cultures and traditions, war is never the right answer.

Thank you Denise for this delightful interview.

Rodrigo also recently completed his short "God Bless America" which screened at The Anthology Film Archives in New York City and was recently a Production Assistant on the Asturias section of Woody Allen's new film being shot 2 weeks in Barcelona and one week in Asturias. He is originally from Madrid, Spain and now resides in Miami Florida.

To contact Rodrigo email him at Rodstah620@aol.com

Source: The Student Operated Press