José Lezama Lima: Letters to Eloísa

FAIN: TR-259194-18

Latino Public Broadcasting (Los Angeles, CA 90068-1344)
Sandie Viquez Pedlow (Project Director: August 2017 to present)

Production of a sixty-minute documentary about the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima (1910–76).

An hour-long documentary film biography of one of Cuba’s greatest writers of the twentieth century, and a major figure in the mid-century Latin American literary Boom. Relying on Lezama’s remarkable correspondence with his exiled sister in the U.S. as dramatic armature, the film features Lezama’s own readings of his poetry, striking photography of Havana, dramatizations; as well as archival material and interviews; it weaves together the public and the private, the literary and the political, to show how Lezama’s eventful life was enmeshed in Cuba’s complicated history including its 1959 Revolution and the struggle between government and intellectuals for artistic freedom. A dual tragic love story—between a loving brother and his sister in exile, and between a patriotic, homosexual writer and his roiling nation—the film arrives at a critical time as it opens a window onto a changing Cuba and holds important lessons for the global struggle for freedom and tolerance.

Associated Products

Letters to Eloisa (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Letters to Eloisa
Writer: Adriana Bosch
Producer: Adriana Bosch
Abstract: Letters to Eloisa brings to life the story of the Cuban poet, essayist, and novelist José Lezama Lima, an all but forgotten figure of the Latin American literary boom that included Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, Octavio Paz and Mario Vargas Llosa. Lezama’s semi-autobiographical opus Paradiso, which included homoerotic passages, broke the silence on homosexuality in Cuba and sent shockwaves throughout the Spanish-speaking literary world. It also set its author on a collision course with the Cuban Revolutionary government. Told through letters written by Lezama to his sister in exile, the film is a haunting portrait of the writer’s life, his struggle for artistic freedom, and tragic end.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: http://www.pbs.org/voces
Primary URL Description: Promo page of LPB's series VOCES where Letters to Eloisa will be housed upon initial PBS release.
Access Model: Available to audiences nationwide via PBS
Format: Film
Format: Video

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