Workshop>> Disaster Films • Cuba

Five girls and five boys are participating in a workshop to remember the hurricane that devastated Gibara, their hometown in Eastern Cuba, two years ago. They are filming images to make a video message for Haiti’s earthquake-struck children. The material produced by the workshop, part of the Humberto Solás International Low-Budget Film Festival, will be sent to Haitian communities affected by the earthquake.

Cuban psychologists Yuliet Cruz and Silvia Padrón, associated with the annual festival, initiated this project. They said the workshop aimed at avoiding “secondary victimization”, a result of response of institutions and individuals to victims after the original trauma. One child victim telling his or her story to another who is suffering is a warm way to avoid such trauma, they said.