In Cuba and specifically in Havana there's a sort of energy that turns every situation into something unexpected.
Cuban public is special - they participate, generate a lot of energy, both in a positive and negative sense. It's always an expressive audience.
The base of artistic pursuit is ambivalence and complexity. And that's what I try to do.
Playing catch is often the first professional act of the day, it's a transition from personal life to team business. Lastly, as all position players think they can pitch, at least half of us are working on our off-speed stuff likely at the detriment of our elbows and shoulders, but we can't help it. It's too much fun. My changeup has come a long way since high school.
The magic of film isn't just because of the big screen, or the acoustics, but the ineffable shared experience of going to the movies.
Trips are part of humanity. Emigration is a part of humanity. And it's ever more dynamic due to globalization.
I think that this necessity to travel, to see, it's part of human nature.
It's often pointed out that in Cuban cinema there are too many comedies, but a sense of humor is so much part of the Cuban idiosyncrasy. Curiously, the films that have been censored the most have been humorous.
I don't think that the reality of Cuba is perfect, but it doesn't cleave to the negativity, either, with which some people see it.
What is happiness to me is not necessarily for you. Someone once said, there are three truths: your truth, my truth and the truth. And I think that's true.
It's true that in Cuba there are double standards, there's opportunism, and there is a lack of freedom in some ways.
There was a time when emigration from Cuba was a definitive separation. There were no visits. In the '80s, '90s, it was incredibly difficult. I'm not the only one interested in this as a filmmaker - other Cuban filmmakers have dealt with it, too, because it's such a part of our reality.
Immigration and travel certainly don't mean the same thing everywhere. Here in Cuba, the big wall isn't just the fact that it's an island, but the fact that we need an exit permit in order to leave, and the letters of invitation in order to visit another country.
The Cuban public is hugely cinephile. It's a shame that most of the movie theaters are so deteriorated. The sense of spectacle has been lost a little, but even so, people continue to go.
In all of my movies I've tried to address the need for man - not just Cubans - to have a dream and to fight for that dream, even when he doesn't achieve it. It's a form of happiness.
