A VPRO/Pieter van Huystee production. Produced by van Huystee. Directed by Heddy Honigmann. Written by Honigmann, Ester Gould.
With: Karim Novoak, David Oquendo, Tony Sequera, Rafaela Vals, Leonardo Wignall, Pedro Domench, Felix "Pupy" Insua, Lisandro A. Arias, Alex Hernandez.
(Spanish dialogue)
Joyous, exuberant docu, "Give Me Your Hand" is about Cuban expatriates in New Jersey and the music that sustains them: the rumba they credit with everything from curing breast cancer to maintaining erections at age 83. Latest entry in the impressive oeuvre of Dutch helmer Heddy Honigmann, who was the subject of a recent retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art, "Dame La Mano" builds to a half-hour musical climax that sends auds dancing out of the theater. Warm, thoughtful, well-crafted pic could attract theatrical play, particularly in Hispanic areas, before comfortably settling in for a long cable run.
As Honigmann tracks several Cuban emigrants, she effortlessly establishes an intimacy that gently but insistently leads her subjects to reveal themselves. Sixty-one-year-old Leonardo Wignall, who works alone in the bowels of a building as an operating engineer, proudly displays the ledger that lists his over-150 hours of overtime a week. He admits to an addiction to capitalism that has him buying a $250 mini-television that just sits in his drawer, unused, along with 30 pairs of dancing shoes and three gold watches.
Rafaela Valdes at 62 lithely rumbas around the kitchen preparing huge pots of food and describing her job in Cuba, hand-cutting and rolling cigars, in vivid gestures and with an infectious laugh (almost aspiring to Jayne Mansfield's inimitable squeal in "The Girl Can't Help It") as she seasons her Cuban chicken with Coca-Cola.
Some youngsters and performers have found ways to reconcile their work and their passion. Young pianist/composer Lisandro Arias finds energy in his cab driving forays into the streets of the Bronx, his music enriched by contact with blacks from other cultures who like Latin music. Felix "Pupy" Insua limbers up his 56-year-old body, soon thereafter donning a skirt to teach women the ruffled intricacies of the rumba's erotic, aggressively flounced advances and retreats.
Most older interviewees miss Cuba and the families they left behind, finding their solace, strength and apparently eternal youth only in music, specifically in the many variations of the rumba.
Every Sunday night the entire cast of characters shed their workaday existences, spiff themselves up -- the women in blond wigs and silk dresses and the men sporting two-tone shoes -- and converge on La Esquina Habanera, a restaurant and favorite gathering place for Cubans in New Jersey.
The astounding virtuosity on display, from amateurs and professionals indistinguishably, is magnificently interactive; everyone encourages everyone else to greater heights, as a dancer goes one-on-one with a drummer or carries the rhythm into the streets. As the music swells, so too does Honigmann's flawless montage in an improvisational set piece that sums up the whole film, culminating in a rendition of "Dame La Mano," pic's titular leitmotif.
Tech credits are first rate.
Camera (color), Gregor Meerman; editor, Mario Steenbergen; sound (Dolby), Piotr van Dijk; sound designer, Hugo Dijkstal. Reviewed at Dance on Camera Festival, New York, Jan. 23, 2004. Running time: 122 MIN.
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Date in print: Mon., Mar. 1, 2004