The last time I sang my country's anthem was during the demonstration on 11 July 2021. Everyone in Cuba sang the anthem that day, filled with an inexpressible feeling. Then came the disappearances and silence all over the island. Since then the anthem has not been sung in the same way.

My name is Frank D. Blanco. I am a Cuban independent filmmaker and writer, and since the death of my grandfather in February of this year, I am developing a documentary about the story of his life, the dream of the generation to which he belonged (the one that had the task of building the socialist revolution), and how my time assumes the legacy of that dream that has been broken.

My grandfather was the main voice at the microphone when the official recording of my country's anthem was made. He always told how he was asked to stand in the middle, a little more in front of everyone, and sing as if he were in combat. Although he had gone to the war in Angola in 1977, he had never been in combat directly. For the recording of the Cuban National Anthem he put all his imagination and willpower into it. He was accompanied by the strength of a love that, most probably, neither I, nor anyone of my generation, will ever be able to experience again.

Reading my grandfather's letters and looking through family photographs, I discovered that behind his life there really was a kind of miracle: something that filled him with faith and passion, which manifested itself to him in a dream while he was in the war in Angola. During the last years of his life, my grandfather kept referring to this. He called it his Guardian Angel. At the same time, at this stage of his life, he devoted his efforts to cutting out many paper stars, which he accumulated until he filled a bag of several kilograms. According to him, he did this to fight Parkinson's disease. Faced with the image of him cutting out stars, for the first time in my life I felt the desire to film. Now, after his death, I have set out to make a film using those first images I shot with a camera.

This year, my film project has been selected to take the Master's Degree in Film Creation at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE), in Donostia/San Sebastián. This is one of the most renowned film schools in the world.

Both for its excellent tutoring and for its programme that focuses on experimentation, archiving, and alternative ways of telling a story, the EQZE has always seemed to me to be the ideal school to train as a documentary filmmaker and to develop the structure I will use to tell the story of my film.

In Cuba, I no longer have the possibility of studying this kind of studies. I have a degree in TV Production and NNA from the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV), and this means, among other things, that I can no longer study Documentary Film at the only film school in my country. For me, it is a great opportunity to be selected for the EQZE's Master of Creation this year. There are always a lot of applicants and it is not easy to be selected.

At the moment I have already paid 20% of the tuition fee with my own contributions in terms of reserving my place, which is equivalent to 940.00 euros. Given the conditions of the Cuban context, it was very difficult to raise this money; that is why I am launching this crowfunding with the aim of raising the 7500.00 euros that I need to cover the rest of the tuition, airfare, and the maintenance of the first months of schooling, until I get a work permit. Anyone who wishes to contribute to the crowfunding will appear in the credits of the final version of the film, whose provisional title is "El Blanco de la Estrella". The money raised from this crowfunding will be used in the following way:

- Tuition fee

- 3760.00 euros

- Airfare

- 640.00 euros

- Payment of three months rent + deposit

- 400.00 x 3 months + 700.00 = 1900.00 Euros

- Maintenance

- 400.00 x 3 months = 1200.00 euros

So far, the film has had the support and advice of Paz Encina, through the online workshop Compañero del Viento, from Silencio Lab, where after 18 weeks, I have developed the structure and script of the film, as well as filling me with references and ideas that have helped me understand the approach with which I want to continue.

Bibata Uribe, who has been working to promote Latin American cinema in Europe since 2009, also joined this project after a very special meeting at the EICTV. There, we shared an intense professional experience, where, between talks, screenings and reflections on film, we discovered a common sensibility. We are united by the desire to give space to memories that resist silence. With her background in curatorship and dissemination, Bibata brings a valuable perspective that enriches and accompanies this project on its way to completion.

It's funny, a few months ago this project was just another idea forgotten in a drawer along with the family photographs. My studies at EICTV had not given me the time I needed to explore it. Now, every time I return to writing and research, I feel my perspective of the world and of cinema reformulated, I feel that I begin to understand the meaning of love in the images of my country as strongly as my grandfather felt the inspiration that helped him to sing the hymn. A friend once told me that my grandfather was accompanying me in this process. I am beginning to think about it too: this film is my way of returning to him, to understand what is this Great Love that is behind everything, even if it seems that the country is dying.