Valuable poet and filmmaker Víctor Casaus to be honoured in Cuba

The space El elogio oportuno, at the Fayad Jamís bookshop in Havana, will pay tribute to Cuban poet, filmmaker and journalist Víctor Casaus on Thursday, on the occasion of his 80th birthday (10 March 1944).

At the meeting, led by journalist and critic Fernando Rodríguez, the audience will learn about the work of this important documentary filmmaker, author of more than 15 titles, including De la vida y la vivienda (1975), Con Maiacovski en Moscú (1976), Gracias a la vida (1976), and Vamos a caminar por Casa (1980).

His signature also appears on the feature films Como la vida misma (1985) and Bajo presión (1990), along with an extensive literary catalogue that includes poems, testimonies, short stories, works for children, essays, translations and anthologies.

This is an opportunity for those who admire Casaus’ literature, as they will be able to purchase his books published by Ediciones La Memoria, an imprint of the Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau, an institution founded and directed by him.

Víctor Casaus holds the José Antonio Fernández de Castro National Prize for Cultural Journalism for his life’s work, the Alejo Carpentier Medal, the Distinction for National Culture and the Juan Marinello Order, among many others.

The institution will open its doors from 15:00, local time, to the tribute and also to music, as the troubadour Silvio Alejandro Rodríguez will participate, according to the note from the Cuban Book Institute.

Sponsored by the Fayad Jamís Bookshop and the Culture and Social Sciences Sections of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, El elogio oportuno is intended to pay tribute to writers, books, historical events and institutions that reach their anniversaries.

It owes its name to Marti’s aphorism «timely praise encourages merit; and the lack of timely praise discourages it», which appeared in the pages of the newspaper Patria in April 1892.