Roberto Chile Pérez

Cuban filmmaker and photographer. He holds the Distinction for National Culture. His most well-known works are the documentaries Challenge, On the Slopes of the Himalayas, You Shine in My Eyes, Let There Be Light, In Praise of Virtue, Ode to the Revolution, Simply Korda, I Am Tata Nganga and Essences, La Colmenita in the United States.

As personal cameraman, he accompanied Fidel Castro on his travels throughout Cuba and the world from 1984 to 2006.

He has participated as director of photography, cameraman, and/or producer in various productions by important Cuban and foreign production companies. He received a Caracol Award in 1984 for his documentary Who is Al Giddings?

He began his university studies in Poland in 1973, where he went to study Naval Engineering. He returned to Cuba before completing the first year. In the midst of that sudden setback, he enrolled at the Technological Institute "Osvaldo Herrera" and in two years he graduated as a technician in Radio Systems. Once his studies were finished, he entered CUJAE and in 1984, at age 29, he graduated in Telecommunications Engineering.

Thanks to his brother Ramón, he arrived at television in 1977 where he began working in a video team that his brother had founded together with other colleagues at the Cuban Fishing Fleet. The camera became the passion of his life.

His first work in television was a documentary titled Who is Al Giddings?, which he filmed, edited, and wrote, for which he received his first award in a national competition: Caracol Award for Best Documentary 1984. This fact gave him the confidence to move forward. Considering it his first light.

One day he set out to promote the work of some visual artists, more out of a debt of gratitude he had with some of them, and that was the beginning of a long journey. The first were José Omar Torres, Roger Aguilar, and Minerva López. Then came Choco, Carlos del Toro, Roberto Fabelo, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Flora Fong, Zaida del Río, and many more.

In the mid-1990s, he dedicated much of his free time, which at that time was not much, to conceive and create short audiovisuals that evoked the creative process and brought the public closer to the work of these artists. Many of them, although they already had nationally and internationally recognized work, were not known by the Cuban public. Thus more than 40 short films came to light that had a good impact on the television audience. They were broadcast and shown inside and outside Cuba, both on television channels and in exhibitions and cultural events.

More recently came a second stage of work and "Wings with Points" was born, today an essential part of his life. A Martí phrase gave name to that project: "Wings have points, and when I extend them, and they are rejected, they return to me, in me they are lodged." A phrase that has become an inspiration, an encouragement, a conviction for Roberto Chile.

The exhibition Afrodescendants-Guanabacoa-Cuba, by Roberto Chile, was open to the American public at the Afro-American Museum of California (CAAM) from March 28, 2013 to October 13, 2013 as an opportunity to delve into Cuban cultural roots through art.

The project, currently made up of 90 black and white photographs, began to take shape on his own initiative, together with his friend Gabriel Navarrete, in the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa at the beginning of 2011 as part of the tribute in Cuba to the International Year of Afrodescendants, declared by UNESCO.

Afrodescendants reflects the attachment to African heritage in Cuba through a spectrum of themes such as religion, music, dance, work, and the daily life of the residents of Guanabacoa.

The exhibition, initially inaugurated at the Photography Archive of Cuba, has traveled through the Municipal House of Culture "Rita Montaner" former High School of Guanabacoa, Casa América of Madrid, Casa Patria Grande Néstor Kirchner of Argentina, among other exhibition spaces in the United States.

His most well-known works are the documentaries "Challenge," "On the Slopes of the Himalayas," "You Shine in My Eyes," "Let There Be Light," "In Praise of Virtue," "Ode to the Revolution," "Simply Korda," "I Am Tata Nganga" and "Essences" (La Colmenita in the United States).

As personal cameraman, he accompanied Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, on his travels throughout Cuba and the world from 1984 to 2006. Days of Friendship; From Hanoi to Hiroshima; Brazil, Hope Triumphs; and Argentina, New Airs, documentaries of undisputed journalistic and artistic value, form part of his imprint on the audiovisual memory of the Cuban nation.

He has participated as director of photography, cameraman, and/or producer in various productions by important Cuban and foreign production companies. As a chronicler of his time, he has exalted the values of Cuban artists and creators in more than 80 short and medium-length productions, in which he promotes with artistic vision the work of outstanding figures in Cuban music and contemporary art. With these purposes, he created the Wings with Points project in January 2008.

Throughout his life he has received important recognitions for his artistic and/or journalistic work, among which stand out, the Replica of the Machete of Generalissimo Máximo Gómez (1998); the status of Important Men and Women of Society (2003); and the Distinction for National Culture (2004). Dozens of his documentaries and reports have been awarded at national and international festivals and competitions.

Photographic Work

His most outstanding photographs are those he took of Fidel Castro during the period between July 2010 and March 2011, many of which have been and are published in various national and international media outlets.

In June 2011 he presented at Casa de América, Madrid, Spain, the photography exhibition titled Afrodescendants, Guanabacoa-Cuba, which was later presented in Buenos Aires, Havana, New York, and Washington.

As Eusebio Leal Spengler, Historian of the City of Havana, said, "Roberto Chile has been able to forge a singular, always dignified and luminous image of Cuba. His images form a universe of faith and spirituality, perceptible to those who, like him, are capable of loving."