The first poster of this year comes from Uruguay, is for a Cuban documentary called “Olga” and is the work of Diana Carmenate from La Habana, Cuba. Diana lives with her heart between Havana and Montevideo. She is an Illustrator, producer and something poet, “I look for art in each format and in every corner that inhabits. “I am passionate about cinema; the universe conspired to make me a designer. I was born on the island of basic, non-basic and directed toys” says Diana. She is a graduate of Visual Communication Design at the University of Havana in 2017 and of the Integral Course of Creativity and Art Direction of Brother Montevideo, her main branches of work are brand communication (branding) and graphic design for cinema, where she design posters, art assistance, production folders, credits, etc. She has participated in various exhibitions and as a speaker in different events, almost always related to the poster.  Diana has received the Coral Award for the best Poster at the 41st International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, for ¨ Olga ¨, a mention in the 18th ICAIC Youth Show, Cuba, for ¨Olga¨, Best Poster in the 17th ICAIC Youth Show, Cuba, for ¨Roma¨. Coral Award for the best Poster at the 39th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, Cuba, for ¨ what remedy? La Parranda ¨, Mention 16th ICAIC Youth Show, Cuba, by “Boomerang”.

Olga is a documentary directed by Orlando Mora; it’s about a lady who cared about 80 cats. He has them in quite complex conditions, in cages such as rabbits or chickens, but he cares for them, he loves them, he knows their names and feeds them daily, above the effort we know that in Cuba that can entail. The conceptualization process came out of the following question: Olga has her cats in a slightly cruel condition as pets, but in Cuba there is no animal protection law, and therefore, in the streets people mistreat and kill animals at will. , besides there is no effective adoption chain … then … Olga is good or bad? Is your “bad” a necessary evil for a greater good? Hence we start by not judging Olga as a premise, nor showing it. Meanwhile, people continue to leave cats at the entrance of her house and she has no choice but to adopt them and fears that she will die … so, Olga is a prey to cats that have prisoners, while she is Your protector and worshiper. Hence the graphic concept of putting both prisoners in the same cage, but you never know for sure who is inside or outside. The wink of placing the bottom eyes, works like something I really like to do, which is to reveal something of the movie but you really do not know until you see it, there reveals all the cats that Olga has, but you only know later . The decision of colors was because, seeing the documentary, and in this double sense of prisoner of his prisoner, we think of Cuba, the government and the current situation, and we find a beautiful analogy, hence the decision to use the colors of The Cuban flag.

If you would like to learn more from Diana Carmenate and her work visit her site and remember to submit your poster for the next edition of Poster Monday. Find all the info you need in our submissions page, and facebook.