Lázara Lizette Vila Espina

Filmmaker, documentary filmmaker, music composer. Outstanding Cuban pacifist, one of the most representative women in the struggle for gender equity in Cuba.

Music composer and documentary filmmaker for cinema, TV and video, as well as musical advisor. Creator of the Hurón Azul cultural promotion program. Has created more than 30 documentaries on humanist topics.

Has worked at: Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión; Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales; TRIMAGEN film studios; Estudios cinematográficos de la Televisión Cubana; Film studios of the Ministry of Education; Estudios cinematográficos del Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos; Founding professor of the International Film School of Cuba; Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba; Director of the Palomas cultural project.(ICAIC)

Founding professor of the International School of Film and Television. Has taught courses, lectures and workshops at universities and art centers in Colombia, Venezuela and the United States.

For 26 years she organized theoretical meetings on the relationship between gender and audiovisual creation, and has also participated in conferences and other theoretical events in different countries, notably China, Brazil, Chile and Spain. She has also been a jury member at film festivals in Cuba, Italy and Germany.

Member of the Radio and TV Section of the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, of which she has been president. Creator and current Director of the Palomas Project. A collection of her documentaries are part of the traveling exhibition organized by the Asociación pro-documentales de Huelva, Spain.

Professor and lecturer in audiovisual workshops at major universities in Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, USA, Argentina, England, among others.

Musical advisor on various film productions from Germany, Hungary, BBC London, Spanish television and different major production companies.

Represented the Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba for several years on the Economic, Legal and Social Committee of Women at the United Nations headquarters.

Participated in the World March of Women for Peace. New York, USA.

Invited to the Caribbean Film Festival, held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 2006

In 2007, she was part of the jury for the 7th International Film Festival of Sexual Themes, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Conducted workshops on sexual health prevention participation in Cuba and various Latin American countries.

Participated in the First edition of the UCL Festival of the Moving Image, held at the Bloomsbury Theatre of University College London.
She was an International Jury member at the V Hispanic-American Meeting of Independent Cinema and Video Documentary: Against Silence All Voices. Held in Mexico City, April, 2008.

Represented Cuba at the I Meeting of Women for Peace, of Latin America and the Caribbean, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May, 2008.

Was an International Jury member at the Riviera Maya Underground Film Festival, held in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, October, 2008.

Participated in the design, organization and as professor in the I Audiovisual Training Workshop from a gender perspective, aimed at rural women leaders from the Central America and Caribbean region, convened by the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de San Antonio de los Baños, the Gender Program of the Swiss Agency for Development and International Cooperation and the Regional UNESCO Office in Havana, November, 2008.

Attended the I International Meeting of Women with Disabilities, Havana, Cuba, 2008.

Intervened in the Experimental Workshops of Creative Processes and Socialization conducted by the Palomas Project and the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), with Canadian students from Dalhousie University.
Appeared at the III International Colloquium on Gender Studies, Theories and Practices, of the Gender group "Equity," of the "Chair of Women, University and Development" of the University of Oriente.

She was given recognition for her contribution to the promotion of Gender Equity in her audiovisual works and in teaching. Cuba, 2008.
International Jury member at the VII International Film Festival Cine Pobre de Humberto Solás, Gibara, Cuba, 2009.
Special Guest
She was an International Jury member at the VII International Film Festival Cine Pobre de Humberto Solás, Gibara, Cuba, 2009, Jury member for the Ibero-American Elena Gil Ethics Award. Cuba, 2009; Jury member at the Film Festival of the Union of Short Film Filmmakers (UNCIPAR), Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2010.

Speaker and presenter of her documentaries at the Cuban Audiovisual Exhibition in Switzerland, organized by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation – COSUDE, 2010

Participated in various meetings with artists, journalists, and authorities related to the themes of social inclusion and civic culture.

Selected in 2019 as a jury member for the XVII International Film Festival of Pyongyang, which evaluates audiovisuals competing in this audiovisual celebration.

Filmography
1987
Tearing Veils (Doc.)
Another Woman Without a Face (Doc.)
1994
My Tango
1999
And Female is My Soul (Doc.),
2002
I Am Not a Saint (Doc.),
Violets for Mom (Music composition and Soundtrack. Fiction. Director Vicente González Castro),
Woman, Marvel of the Soul (Doc.)
A Dangerous Game (Soundtrack. Fiction. Director Vicente González Castro)
2003
The Goldsmith Osvaldo Castilla (Doc.)
2004
Mission Against Terror (Ireland-Cuba. Soundtrack Design. Doc.)
The Feather Pillow (Soundtrack. Fiction. Director Vicente González Castro)
2005
Raquel (Co-directed with Eberto García Abreu)
The Memory of Trees (Soundtrack Design. Fiction. Director Tomás Piard)
Sexuality...a Right to Life (Doc.)
2006
Forensic (Soundtrack Design. Fiction series for TV. Director Vicente González Castro)


Palomas Project: The Paloma Project is attached to the Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC). It is a project that aims to promote and disseminate changes in lifestyles, the promotion of a culture of peace. It is essential for the Paloma Project and for all who work on it to understand what the culture of peace is. It is not about the absence of conflicts or that everything runs smoothly; that is not the story. It is about how to live, interact with friends, with everyone around you in your neighborhood, in your workplace, even when there are conflict situations, in an atmosphere of harmony, of exchange, of respect for the other.

This essence of the Paloma Project has given us light to work on certain elements that have to do with life, with existence.

What Lizette does is express audiovisually what she feels, what she thinks, what moves her, what she believes as an act of faith for the changes we have in life, that we must have in life. She says that changes are like a death and a rebirth for human growth and development. Some people have labeled her as a social activist.

Awards and Recognitions
José Manuel Valdés Rodríguez Honorary Seal awarded to Lizette Vila
She has won two Coral Awards at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana 1989 and 1990 as Director and Soundtrack Design, respectively.
Two awards from specialized critics in 1996 and 1998 at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema.
Tina Modotti Prize from the Unión de Periodistas de Cuba.
Ibero-American Elena Gil Ethics Award.
World Gold Medal for Special Education.
Award from the Festival of Latin American Documentarians of Mexico, and the Latin American Festival of Trieste.
Award at the Festival of Documentaries in Hungary.
Several awards in Leipzig, as part of the production team, in documentaries from Television and ICAIC.
Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005, as part of the selection 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico invited Lizette Vila to participate in academic meetings.

Summary

Documentaries and activities with humanist themes:

Women survivors of domestic violence

Women with alcohol addiction in recovery process

Minors with different disabilities

Elderly adults treated in religious centers for their physical and mental illnesses.

Transgenderism.

Women, men and adolescents living with HIV/AIDS

Construction of masculinities in Cuba.

Experience with the reality of various religious congregations in Cuba.

The empowerment of Rural Women.

Prevention against tuberculosis.

Advice and presentation of books in Braille system of patriotic symbols, adolescent sexuality and prevention for diabetic people at risk of blindness.

Gender Equity Training Workshops.

Workshops for learning the Origami technique.

Production and promotion of the Danza Voluminosa company.

Organization of various exhibitions in important Cuban museums.