Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Papa en Cuba

Hemingway festival celebrates Papa’s Cuban life


By SABINA DANA PLASSE
Express Staff Writer

Ernest Hemingway at Finca Vigía in San Francisco de Paula, Cuba, 1947. Photo courtesy of the Hemingway Archive at the JFK Library

Ernest Hemingway's life in Cuba was a significant 20 years for the writer, whose influence on modern literature continues to persist. In Cuba, Hemingway penned "The Old Man and the Sea," which earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 for his lifetime of literary achievements.

Celebrating and examining Hemingway's life in Cuba, The fourth annual Ernest Hemingway Festival will take place Thursday, Sept. 25, through Sunday, Sept. 28, in and around Ketchum. The festival will feature the PBS documentary film, "Hemingway in Cuba" by Hilary Hemingway, Ernest's niece, and Hilary's husband, Jeff Lindsay. The film will open the festival on Thursday, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m. at The Community School Theatre in Sun Valley and will be followed by a Q & A session with Hilary. Tickets are $20.

Hilary is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist who has written for the Miami Herald, Interview and Harper's Bazaar. She was also a columnist for the Ft. Meyers News-Press. Hilary has produced the 10 o'clock evening news for Fox Television, as well PBS's talk show, Media Watch. "Hemingway in Cuba" is a nationally syndicated documentary she originally produced for a regional PBS affiliate station, WJCU-TV in Ft. Meyers, Fla.

"We got a grant and the money was given to PBS," Hilary said. "It was a local PBS station film and national PBS picked it up five years ago. It airs all the time."

"Hemingway in Cuba" was directed and produced by Hilary, and the film features her husband as the on-camera talent. The documentary is based on Hilary's book "Hemingway in Cuba," published by Ruggedland Press. Hilary will make her first trip to Ketchum to present "Hemingway in Cuba" to open the festival, but Lindsay will be unable to attend.

"I went to Cuba to do another book, and I realized in Cuba there was an awful lot of material that was not available to scholars," Hilary said. "It needed to be covered and had never been done by other biographers."

The film features Fidel Castro talking about Ernest's influence on him, Cuba and Castro's revolution. Hilary knew she was going to meet Castro on her trip to Cuba to film material, which was going to be archived for the Ernest Hemingway collection at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

"Meeting Castro wasn't scary," Hilary said. "It surprised me because of the guys with machine guns walking around. I did not really know why Castro kept Ernest's memory alive. Everyone assumes it's 'The Old Man and The Sea', but Castro had read 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' In the book, Robert Jordan leads an uprising against a major and larger army and uses guerilla war tactics, which was what Castro did by hiding out in the Sierra Madre."

Hilary said Ernest was not a fan of Communism, but he did believe the U.S. government was keeping tabs on him because he had lived in Cuba.

There were lots of photographs and papers in Cuba, which were assembled in manila envelopes and since have been scanned and sent to the Kennedy Library. Hilary and her film crew were there for the beginning of the process. The film "Hemingway in Cuba" captures the historic agreement between the John F. Kennedy Library and the Cuban government to allow access to the archives.

"Ernest liked to fit in with the people and the culture he was in," Hilary said. "I think he was most comfortable in Cuba."

Hilary is co-writing a film with actor and director Andy Garcia. Garcia wants to do a film about the last 20 years of Ernest's life, paralleling the story with the writing of "The Old Man and the Sea."

"It's a biography that will have a certain amount of presence in Sun Valley," Hilary said.

The weekend of events will also include Martin Peterson's talk on "Hemingway and the Cuba-Idaho Connection," Dr. Susan Beegal, editor of "The Hemingway Review," speaking on "Hemingway's Cuban Masterpiece: The Old Man and the Sea," Stacey Guill presenting "The Spanish Earth" and its connections to "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and Dr. Sandra Spainier presenting a talk on "Preservation of the Hemingway papers in Cuba."

For details, visit ernesthemingwayfestival.com.

Schedule of events

Thursday, Sept. 25

· 5 p.m. Reception for sponsors/donors/speakers at The Community School, Sun Valley.

· 7 p.m. Opening Reception/Welcome, "Hemingway in Cuba" documentary film by Hilary Hemingway and Jeff Lindsay with Q&A to follow at The Community School, Sun Valley.

Friday, Sept. 26

· 9-10:30 a.m. Martin Peterson, will give a talk titled "Hemingway and the Cuba-Idaho Connection" at the nexStage Theatre, Ketchum.

· 10:45 a.m.-12 p.m. Dr. Susan Beegel, scholar and editor of the award-winning "The Hemingway Review" will speak on "Hemingway's Cuban Masterpiece: 'The Old Man and the Sea'" at the nexStage Theatre, Ketchum.

· 1-2:30 p.m. Hemingway Hangouts guided tour leaves from the Sun Valley-Ketchum Ski & Heritage Museum in Ketchum.

· 3-4 p.m. University of Idaho student readings, featuring Kendall Sand, Andrew Millar, Dan Berkner and Robb Kunz at the Community Library in Ketchum. Free and open to the public.

· 7:30-10 p.m. "Evening in Cuba" includes entertainment, salsa music and dancing, Cuban food and drinks at the nexStage Theatre, Ketchum.

Saturday, Sept. 27

· 9-10:30 a.m. Stacey Guill, Ph.D., will present "The Spanish Earth" and its important connections to the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" at The Community School in Ketchum.

· 10:45-11:45 a.m. Dr. Sandra Spanier will present the "Preservation of the Hemingway Papers in Cuba" at The Community School in Sun Valley.

· 1-2:30 p.m. Hemingway Hangouts guided tour leaves from the Sun Valley-Ketchum Ski & Heritage Museum in Ketchum.

· 5-6 p.m. Reading and book signing, "The Enders Hotel: A Memoir" by Brandon Schrand of University of Idaho's Creative Writing program at the Community Library in Ketchum. This event is free and open to the public.

· 6 p.m. Reading by 2008 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winner Joshua Ferris. Ferris will read from his first novel, "Then We Came to the End." There will be a book signing and a wine reception to follow reading at the Community Library in Ketchum. Free and open to the public.

· 7p.m. Elegant dinner at Ernest Hemingway's home presented by The Nature Conservancy of Idaho and sponsored by Ketchum On the Fly. This event is $1,000 per person with a limited availability of only 18 seats. To purchase tickets, please contact Elizabeth Coleman at (208) 788-8988, ext. 28. Tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

· 9 p.m. Iconoclast Open Mic Night in Ketchum. This event is free and open to the public. Sign-ups will begin at 7:30 p.m. All genres are welcome. Costumes are encouraged.

Sunday, Sept. 28

· 1-2:30 p.m. Hemingway Hangouts guided tour leaves from the Sun Valley-Ketchum Ski & Heritage Museum in Ketchum.

There will be a registration fee of $30 per person, which includes general admission into all lectures, guided tours and films. The keynote address is a separate event with a ticket price of $20. The "Evening in Cuba" is not included in the festival badge. Tickets for this event are $35. Students 18 or younger can attend for free. All books will be available by Iconoclast Books.




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