User:Jaums/Agustin Blazquez

Agustin Blazquez ( birth date, if known) Cuban (or American?) documentary film maker.

Referred to in 2007 by film critic Roberto Fandino as "one of the most representative filmmakers in exile and his documentaries must be valued at the same height as the best of this genre." [Revista Hispano Cubana, No. 27, pages 213-215, Madrid, Spain]

Agustin Blazquez was born in Cardenas, Cuba. He left Cuba on July 18, 1965, and lived in Montreal, Paris and Madrid before arriving in the United States in 1967.

Blazquez graduated from The Municipal Academy of Dramatic Arts of Havana in 1962. Although the single curriculum available was termed “Dramatic Arts”, he began his acting career before graduation by performing on radio, TV and in theater.

Before graduating, he and a fellow graduate purchased a Keystone 16 mm camera because 16 mm was the only film stock available in Cuba at that time. With the two reels of stock they were able to find to purchase, they produced two films for the sole purpose of obtaining the experience. They had no access to editing equipment, so the productions were shot in sequence. Due to the lack of everything from equipment and opportunity in post-revolutionary Cuba, they were able to view the films only once. There was no means to screen or otherwise distribute them. The two reels were left behind in Cuba to unknown fate.

In 1962 Blazquez auditioned for I.C.A.I.C., Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematografica, the official government film studio. In 1963 he signed a contract to play the role of “Responsable”, the supervisor of a group volunteer teachers in the Sierra Maestra mountains in En Dias Como Estos, directed Jorge Fraga, released in 1964. He also played the part of the bartender in Cronica Cubana, and a bit part in Preludio 11, both 1963.

While living in Madrid he perused his acting career by appearing in numerous dramatic, musical and comedy television productions for TBE, Television Espanola from January 1966 to June 1967.

In the U.S. he appeared in America's Most Wanted as drug dealer in 1989, and later did the English voice-over of King Juan Carlos of Spain and Jordi Pujol, guitarist from Barcelona, for Maryland Public Television series, The Immigrants.

In 2008 he was the narrator for the Cuban Spanish version of Welcome to the U.S. Guidebook for Refugees produced by the U.S. State Department.

After arriving in the U.S. Blazquez was stricken by the inaccuracies and omissions on the subject of Cuba in the U.S. Media, and by the freedom to take action, leaving him feeling compelled, by 1968 to began writing articles on the subject. Eventually numbering over 300 to date, the articles were distributed at first by U.S. Mail and word of mouth, later by fax, then email and appearance on numerous websites. Some were published by the Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Washington Inquirer, and others in the U.S. and abroad. Internet sites such sites as Newsmax and FrontPage Magazine have picked up his articles.

Meanwhile, his film production education continued by way of making experimental productions using an 8 mm home movie camera (including a silent musical) and video as soon as he obtained his first home video camera. He also took two courses offered by local cable TV. The rest is will power.

In 1995, his first documentary of the series Covering Cuba premiered at the American Film Institute in the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He went on to produce Cuba: The Pearl of the Antilles, Covering Cuba 2: The Next Generation, Covering Cuba 3: Elian, presented at the 2003 Miami Latin Film Festival and the 2004 American Film Renaissance Film Festival in Dallas, Texas, Covering Cuba 4: The Rats Below, Dan Rather 60 Minutes an inside view, Covering Cuba 5: Act Of Repudiation, Covering Cuba 6: Curacao and Covering Cuba 7, Che: The Other Side of an Icon.

Covering Cuba 3, 4, 5 & 6 were shown at the Palm Beach International Latin Film Festival. Covering Cuba 2 was shown at the Miami International Book Fair.

To aid in the production of the documentaries, he established UnCovering Cuba Educational Foundation, a non-profit organization [501 (c) (3) in 2005. A selection of his articles, along with those of Carlos Wotzkow, were published in the book Covering and Discovering in 2001 and he translated the book by Luis Grave de Peralta Morell, The Mafia of Havana: The Cuban Cosa Nostra in 2002.

He also produced a music video, Uno with Cuban American singer/song writer Luisa Maria Guell and You Don't Know Che and March of a Progressive with singer/song writer Steve Pichan, and a compilation of the dance numbers of rumba dancer Maria Antonieta Pons from her movies.

His queue of future productions is long and continues to grow, as he nears completion of the first in a new series Art and Politics.