MATANZAS, Cuba. – At 50 years of age, Charles Cabrera Rodríguez is one of the most popular video clip makers in Cuba and where singers from different genres of music come to create the audiovisual support for their songs.
Although he is capable of being the director of any type of clip, the truth is that he has become a reference within the urban genre.
Figures such as the reggaeton duo Charly & Johayron, Yomil & El Dany, Alex Duvall, Diván and the much-known Bebeshitoamong other artists, have been placed in the hands of Charles.
―The public has known about your work as a director for several years, but when did you start directing in the Cuban audiovisual scene?
“I started my career in video clips in 2008, when I had the opportunity to make my first video here in Cuba,” it was called I fell in lovea song by Los Faraones―, and I was lucky enough to be among the 10 most popular that year with that first video.
―What was one of the main obstacles at the beginning?
―The most complex thing that was at the beginning was that people could trust my talent and desire to create. I was starting a career and it was very difficult to have a budget that lived up to all the knowledge I had, but little by little I achieved it.
After making the video for Los Pharaones I was stumbling around, as they say, until 2013, which [el músico] Osmani Espinosa decided to give me the opportunity to make the video of Laritza Bacallao Let the drums sound, And from that moment my career really began to rise.
―If you had to highlight the positive and negative aspects of the music industry in Cuba right now, what would you say?
―The best thing about the Cuban music video industry is the exposure. Since we don’t have a cinema here, it is very popular among the public; people follow the video clips. Furthermore, with all this movement now in the urban genre there are many videos, a lot of work is being done and there is a lot to do.
The worst thing about the industry is the limitations: we always have problems when requesting permission to film, there are many places where you cannot film such as schools, hospitals; there are many limitations. We have to solve by art what we could normally do live on location.
―What is the key to staying as a video director amidst limitations?
―I don’t know if it is the key to staying alive, but I do believe that you have to have the vocation and desire to do it and, second, perseverance, to be working all the time, creating, connecting with the artists so that they also maintain confidence in the work. .
―If a comparison is established between the conditions, profits and production of audiovisuals before the pandemic and after, how much has the industry advanced or regressed?
―After the COVID We have entered a crisis, which is not even national, but global, where inflation has grown, costs and salaries have fallen. Before COVID we had the opportunity to have large or medium budgets, but right now we are working with little.
Now artists also do not have the space to sell themselves, as they are not digital platforms. This level of crisis has led to the video clip being on a creative plateau, because, not having much budget for it, you have to try to solve it, which is not much. Then the work is repeated a little.
―What role do Cuban artists who live abroad play in the music industry in Cuba?
―I don’t think it plays a very important role, because really of the people who leave Cuba, very few return to work here, and the arrival of international artists is also very limited, I don’t think it is favorable at all.
When you have the opportunity to do something international, of course, you have a better budget and more comforts when it comes to working, you can earn a little more money, but it’s not that it’s a great support.
―Public speculation suggests that the urban genre offers greater profit than any other due to the acceptance and consumption it presents. How accurate is that statement?
―A genre has nothing to do with that, what happens is that at the moment the urban genre is the most prolific of all and really has the most opportunity to make clips. I am not a director of urban music videos, I am a video director, I like to make salsa, I have directed audiovisuals of ballads; What happens is that I have been lucky enough to work a lot in the urban genre.
I don’t think that dedicating yourself only to one genre can be favorable, on the contrary, I think that a video director must be ready to do any type of genre.
―Is the income generated by audiovisual production linked to music enough to live in today’s Cuba?
―We all know that no income in Cuba is enough to live. Here we have to work hard to try to have as dignified a life as possible. Like all workers in Cuba, we receive a salary, but normally market prices are always above any Cuban salary.
―What would a filmmaker who wants to start directing or filming videos need?
―The talent, the desire to work, the knowledge, of course, and the confidence of the artists. You have to work to demonstrate that confidence and that you are capable.
-How do you see the panorama of Cuban music videos in five years?
―I can’t talk about the video clip on the Island in a few years, because tomorrow 20 young boys will come out and history will change. I can speak from my point of view and give my personal opinion. I am an artist who is constantly growing and I am moving away from the music video for that very reason.
I am currently making fewer clips and trying to venture into other aspects of audiovisuals, making podcasts, advertising videos… I am trying to evolve and move into other areas. Five years from now, no one knows what may happen.
