Granma. Trombones from Havana
Granma. Trombones from Havana is documentary theatre in which four young Cubans reconstruct the lives of their grandparents and rewrite the history of their country. These stories are interwoven with contemporary socio-political issues of fast-changing Cuba.
Festival IDFA
Run time 120 minutes
Genre theatre
Language Spanish, with English and Dutch surtitles
Dutch premiere
Granma. Trombones from Havana
Cuba has always been a projection space for utopians and their critics. In the 60th year of the revolution, four young Cubans search for traces of history: after the revolution, Faustino Pérez became the first minister for nationalization of property after the revolution. His grandson Daniel still has a catalogue from an auction where confiscated barrettes and seaside villas were sold. Together with him on stage: 24-year-old software programmer Christian who traces his grandfather's path to the Angolan civil war, and Milagro, a history student, who tries to understand why the revolution that enabled her to study will barely allow her to earn a living once she becomes a professor.
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In Granma. Trombones from Havana, together with the 31-year-old musician Diana, whose grandfather was once one of the founding members of the „Orquesta Maravillas de Florida“, these young Cubans embark on a journey through time in which they tell the stories of their families over multiple generations and intertwine them with contemporary sociopolitical questions of a country that is changing. In this intent, they are making Cuba’s history their own in order to keep writing it. In the company of the composer Ari Benjamin Meyers and four trombones they exercise a revolutionary music practice: they learn to do together something that they thought would never be possible before.
Rimini Protokoll
Berlin-based theatre collective Rimini Protokoll was founded in 2000 by Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi and Daniel Wetzel. They have been the leading collective in Europe for over 20 years and have put documentary theatre on the map. They continuously develop the 'genre' and know how to find new forms to tell stories each time. In 2014, Rimini Protokoll was our first guest with 100% Amsterdam: for five days, 100 Amsterdammers stood on stage and told about their lives and their city. In 2017, the collective was at the centre of our festival Brandhaarden and hosted three installations and two hall performances at our house in a fortnight.
Credits
with Milagro Álvarez Leliebre, Daniel Cruces-Pérez, Christian Paneque Moreda, Diana Sainz Mena
concept / direction Stefan Kaegi
stage Aljoscha Begrich
video Mikko Gaestel, Stefan Korsinsky, Bodo Gottschalk
composition Ari Benjamin Meyers
sound design Aaron Ghantus, Tito Toblerone
dramaturgy Aljoscha Begrich, Yohayna Hernández
costumes Julia Casabona
technical direction / light design Sven Nichterlein, Martin Schwemin, Hans Leser
production management Maitén Arns
video collaboration Marta María Borrás
dramaturgical collaboration Ricardo Sarmiento
assistant director Noemi Berkowitz
assistant stage design Julia Casabona
production assistant Federico Vöcks de Schwindt, Dianelis Diéguez
internship Joana Falkenberg (Stage), Ignacia González (Direction), Lenna Stam (Costumes)
touring management Maitén Arns, Federico Schwindt (on tour)
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subtitles Meret Kündig, Federico Schwindt (on tour)
translation Meret Kündig, Franziska Muche, Anna Galt, Marta Vukovic, Adrien Leroux (Panthea)
trombone lessons Yoandry Argudin Ferrer, Diana Sainz Mena und Rob Gutowski
research Cuba Residencia Documenta Sur, coordinated by Laboratorio Escénico de Experimentación Social: Maité Hernandéz-Lorenzo (investigadora y periodista), Karina Pino Gallardo (residente), José Ramón Hernández Suárez (residente), Ricardo Sarmiento Ramírez (residente), Taimi Diéguez Mallo (residente) y Miriam E. González Abad (productora)
a production of Rimini Apparat and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin in coproduction with Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, Festival TransAmériques (Montréal), Kaserne Basel, Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens, Théatre Vidy-Lausanne, LuganoInscena-Lac, Zürcher Theaterspektakel, Festival D'Avignon
funded by German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Senate Department for Culture and Europe
In collaboration with Goethe Institut Havanna
ABOUT IDFA
IDFA stands for the power of creative documentary. Documentaries that can connect, inspire and excite. Documentaries that expand the view of ourselves, the environment and the world around us. Under the label IDFA on Stage, the space between documentary film and performing arts will be explored. During this edition of the festival, ITA hosts daily screenings of documentaries and special performances.
'Stronger than a monument to the dead.' - Hassan Jarfi, the father of the victim.