CZECH REPUBLIC: Andy Garcia showcases his director debut 'The Lost City' at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Record ID: 573882

  • Title: CZECH REPUBLIC: Andy Garcia showcases his director debut 'The Lost City' at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
  • Date: 6th July 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANDY GARCIA SAYING: "As I begun to make my ways in films I quickly realized that I wanted to not only act in films but to make movies. That was in the mid-eighties and as soon as I made that commitment to make movies, not only act in them, the first movie I wanted to make was a movie about Cuba and about the experiences I had grown up with and like I said, a movie, which would pay tribute to the music and culture of Cuba and using music as a sort of metaphoric protagonist. Very early on in the mid-eighties I began with that dream and I was and it solidified it for me when I was read that the novels and the writings of Guillermo Cabrera Infante who wrote and dedicated so much of his life writing about that time period and the cabaret world and the world of Cuba and the coming of age of Cuba, novels like Three Trapped Tigers, Infante's Inferno and A View of Dawn in the Tropics and that was that's where the dream was born. Subconsciously it was with me since I left Cuba but it didn't formulate until the mid to late eighties when I made a conscious choice to explore this subject matter."
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Czech Republic
  • Country: Czech Republic
  • Reuters ID: LVAB17RDBZX6GVG63UNJZSTIDBW9
  • Story Text: Hollywood actor Andy Garcia was honoured with the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at the 41st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Saturday (July 1), as he showcased his directorial debut 'The Lost City' at the festival.
    Garcia was born in Havana, Cuba in 1956 and he spent the first five years of his life on the island. His family emigrated to Miami, Florida when Fidel Castro came to power.
    "This movie is very personal to me. As you have seen I was born in Havana in nineteen fifty… hmmm … Most of the people in this movie, most of the actors in the film, like myself, are products of the story. A story that you may find familiar with your own history. So to me, I consider this movie my life's work. I dedicated physically the last sixteen years of my life to do it and try to get it made and I dreamt about this movie going on 20 to 25 years consciously and probably unconsciously 50 years," Garcia said before the screening of 'The Lost City'.
    Garcia's directorial debut is a romantic drama set in the late fifties when Fidel Castro rose to power in Havana, altering the fates of many Cubans.
    During the news conference Garcia spoke about his motivation do do the film.
    "As I begun to make my ways in films I quickly realized that I wanted to not only act in films but to make movies. That was in the mid-eighties and as soon as I made that commitment to make movies, not only act in them, the first movie I wanted to make was a movie about Cuba and about the experiences I had grown up with and like I said, a movie, which would pay tribute to the music and culture of Cuba and using music as a sort of metaphoric protagonist," the actor, known for his performances in films including 'The Untouchables', 'When a Man Loves a Woman' and 'Ocean's Eleven' explained.
    "Very early on in the mid-eighties I began with that dream and I was and it solidified it for me when I was read that the novels and the writings of Guillermo Cabrera Infante who wrote and dedicated so much of his life writing about that time period and the cabaret world and the world of Cuba and the coming of age of Cuba, novels like Three Trapped Tigers, Infante's Inferno and A View of Dawn in the Tropics and that was that's where the dream was born. Subconsciously it was with me since I left Cuba but it didn't formulate until the mid to late eighties when I made a conscious choice to explore this subject matter," he added.
    The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival runs until July 8, 2006.
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