Illustrator Edel Rodríguez, known for his covers in Time, The New York Times either Der Spiegelhe is accustomed to being he who portrays what happens around him, but in the documentary Freedom is a verb (Freedom is a verb), which premieres in digital next Tuesday, it is he who is portrayed.
His stage in Cuba, where he was born in 1971, his exile to the United States during the exodus of Mariel in 1980, and his progressive path to his current fame, were compressed in just eighteen minutes to create a documentary that reviews Rodríguez’s artistic career.
“In the documentary there is quite a lot of the Cuban experience, what it is to be a Cuban born in Cuba and be a refugee,” the artist tells Efe in a virtual interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epoam7bq3rs
“I wanted that story to be told because in places like Spain and other countries in Europe it are believed that Cuba is an ideal country and that the revolution was very good for the country,” Rodriguez added.
Freedom has always been the artist’s engine. It was what pushed his family to leave the island when Rodriguez was a child, and it is what now influences his covers, which are seen worldwide.
“When I do my job I always have that in mind: people in Cuba are looking at me, people in Iran are looking at me. I have friends in Iran who write me in secret,” admitted the illustrator.
His reunion with fear …
And while he fled from Cuba in search of freedom, Rodríguez said that in recent months, after the arrival of President Donald Trump, he has reunited an old friend in the United States: fear.
“It is not fear of the Cuban style of a dictatorship that you go imprisoned,” Rodríguez said, but it is a type of self -censorship for fear “to angry someone” and that can have an impact on his works or the financing that a gallery or medium receives.
The artist himself regretted having been a direct witness of this fear, ensuring that “there have been several situations” in which galleries or media have become reluctant to publish his works, although he said he knows how to deal with it.
… and with an old friend
Trump has been precisely the subject of some of Rodríguez’s most famous covers, who in the documentary tells how he usually represents the face of US president completely orange, and always lacking eyes.
“I want people to pay more attention to what they are doing. When you make visual contact with someone, you have more empathy with that person or with the Enlightenment,” the artist is heard to say in the documentary.
The illustrations he made of Trump are the last to appear on the film, which combines the narration of Rodriguez’s story, with a succession of his best known works.
“His images are so powerful that he puts you to reflect,” said one of the documentary co -director, Mecky Creus.
Freedom is a verb It premiered in November 2024, but until now it had only been available at festivals in the United States and Europe. From next Tuesday it will be available in digital format through YouTube.
“The film invites you to reflect on the fragility of democracy, censorship (…) and the value of activism, that people go out to the street,” Creus said.
HUGO BARCIA/EFE.
