The Havana Film Festival NY at Bronx Museum

A special preview of the Havana Film Festival New York was an eye-opener at the Bronx Museum, on April 17th. First movie shown was: “Tengo Lo Que Tenía/ I Have What I Had to Have” is a documentary of the life of the Cuban Diva, Xiomara Laugart. Xiomara is from Cuba and now based in New York City. She is very modest, saying that she has never been privileged; she is just “one more black woman who sings.” Xiomara is best known for her portrayal of the late Celia Cruz, the great Cuban salsa singer, in the Broadway play “Celia: A Musical Journey.” Xiomara is happy about her success and now is known as a singer of alternative Latin Music. Yet, for a long time she had “no house, and no car.” Directed in 2009 by Ms. Tané Martinez. This and the second film just about 15 minutes each.

The second film is “Pinchos y Rolos/ Hairpins and Rollers,” a hilarious comedy set in Washington Heights, New York City. Maria inherits a hair salon from her sister, but now must keep it going since her husband has left her. The short film goes through a week in Maria’s life with Maria opening with a song “How Unfair… you have been to me.” She comments, those we love the most are the ones that really make us suffer. Maria puts in an ad for a new hairdresser. After several incompetents, she gets a reliable looking young woman, and also a gay man who fits right in with the women. The hairdressers go wild when a “pretty boy” type comes in to seductively sell them hair care products. The salon temporarily turns into a small discothèque. The new female hairdresser, Dolores turns out to be a disaster, and finds out that she is pregnant. Maria ends on Saturday going out on a Romantic date with the hair products salesman. Directed by Freddy Vargas.