Historic TV Interview with Fidel Castro Retrieved

Havana, Nov 25. -One of the first interviews with Fidel Castro on Cuban television after the triumph of the Revolution will be released in the upcming 33rd International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. The work that is part of the film El dia mas largo (The Longest Day) by the Cuban filmmaker Rebeca Chavez, was conducted by a journalist from the old radio and TV network CMQ, four days before the Fidel´s entry into Havana, on January 8, 1959.

This interview with the leader of the Cuban Revolution is among 34 materials under treatment at the time the filmmaker asked for it to be used in her film, director of the film archives of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT), Marlen Gonzalez, told Prensa Latina.

The 20-minute " The Longest Day," which will be shown in the noncompetitive section Hecho en Cuba (Made in Cuba), is a production of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), which reproduces the original dialogue recorded by TV cameras on January 4, 1959, at the airport in Camaguey.

In remarks to Cuban journalists, Chavez said that the then Commander in Chief of the Rebel Army rested there a few hours before continuing their victorious trip to Havana, leading the Victory Caravan.

Nearly a thousand historical materials of the Cuban television archives, including music programs, commercials, documentaries, and plays have been captured and digitally saved so far, said Gonzalez. (Prensa Latina)