Key West Art & Historical Society to Present the Film “Hello, Hemingway” at the Custom House Museum

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Laura de la Uz plays Larita, an impoverished high school girl living in Havana in the 1950's, in the film "Hello Hemingway."
Laura de la Uz plays Larita, an impoverished high school girl living in Havana in the 1950’s, in the film “Hello Hemingway.”

The Key West Art & Historical Society will present “Hello, Hemingway” at 6:00pm on Thursday, February 4 in the Helmerich Research & Learning Center at the Custom House Museum.

“Hello, Hemingway” follows the story of a young, impoverished Cuban girl who aspires to obtain a scholarship in America during the Batista regime and uses her famous neighbor’s novel “The Old Man and the Sea” to draw parallels to her own life. The film reveals a study of Cuba right before the revolution and also a look at an individual’s hope of a better life.

In director Fernando Pérez's film "Hello Hemingway," showing at the Custom House Museum on February 4, the poverty of the film's fictional school-girl heroine Larita is contrasted against the well-being of her near-neighbor, Ernest Hemingway, and his elegant Cuban home for more than 20 years, a late 19th-century house called "Finca Vigia."
In director Fernando Pérez’s film “Hello Hemingway,” showing at the Custom House Museum on February 4, the poverty of the film’s fictional school-girl heroine Larita is contrasted against the well-being of her near-neighbor, Ernest Hemingway, and his elegant Cuban home for more than 20 years, a late 19th-century house called “Finca Vigia.”

The 1990 Cuban drama directed by Fernando Pérez was selected as the Cuban entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards, and the film’s young star, Laura de la Uz, won Best Actress at the Havana Film Festival for her performance. “Hello, Hemingway” is one of an ongoing presentation of films in the “Art As History, History As Art” series, one of the Society’s newest educational program offerings aimed to coordinate and enrich the Society’s current exhibitions and programs.

“The inauguration of a film program will enhance the archive and collections while introducing the public to the larger view and perspective that film offers,” says Society Board member and film coordinator and host Michael Shields. “The series has been conceived and designed to illuminate the diversity and cultures of people that have made Key West.”

The weekly film exhibits will alternate Thursdays at 6:00pm with the Society’s Distinguished Speaker Series, offering “films that expand our vistas and give us fresh views of our home,” continues Shields. “Hello, Hemingway” follows Distinguished Speaker John Hemingway, grandson to the iconic writer and fisherman Ernest Hemingway.

“Art As History, History As Art” film series is made possible in part by the generosity of the Helmerich Trust. Tickets for the event can be purchased online at KWAHS.ORG/LEARN: $5 for members, $10 for non-members. For more information about this and other programs please contact Adele Williams, Director of Education, at 305-295-6616, ext. 106. Your Museums. Your Community. It takes an Island.

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