Educational Media Reviews Online

Seres extravagantes takes analysis of the late Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas back to his country of origin and away from the U.S., where he became a posthumous sensation based on his autobiography, Before Night Falls and the film of the same name. Arenas is described by those who knew him and lived with him day by day during various stages of his life. The self-styled heroic victim seems less unique and less alone when placed in the idiosyncratic reality of the Cuban intelligentsia. We are introduced to other contemporary writers whose situations are also precarious. In the process Arenas becomes one of many rather than the lonely figure that he seemed to be in the U.S.

The film operates at both an individual and collective level and shows how the two are inseparable in Cuba. News footage documents the mass round up and consignment to work camps of homosexuals, including Arenas, during the 1960s, while individual interviews demonstrate how Arenas and others were affected by their incarceration and subsequent shunning. Multi-generational effects of these political events come out in a poignant interview with, José Roberto Arenas, the young man who carries Arenas’ name. José’s mother, the actress Ingrid González, married Arenas as an act of political defiance. José Roberto describes himself flatly stating “I am the product of an historical crisis.”

Various literary figures speculate on who informs to the security forces on whom and what the consequences were in Arenas’ case. The issue of hidden identities plays out through family secrets as well as state secrets with relatives relating that Arenas’ father “never knew” about his son’s homosexuality. In 2010 Arenas’ letters to literary figures and other papers held at Princeton University will be opened for public inspection inviting further rounds of revelation about Cuban literary circles. For now, Seres extravagantes expands knowledge about the complex reality that produced one of Cuba’s most celebrated writers.

Awards
• City of Madrid Award for best Short Documentary 2005
• Best Documentary Awards at: Union Latina Festival of Biarritz 2005; Madrid Gay and Lesbian Film Festival 2005; Torino Gay and Lesbian Film Festival 2006.