Pavel Giroud

Who is Pavel Giroud?

Pavel Giroud is a film director. He studied design and graduated from the Instituto Superior de Diseño ten years ago.

He first worked as a designer, but for a very short period of time. He then began to paint, working with the basic plastic arts and incorporating video in his work. Gradually he managed to accompany his paintings with video installations, emphasizing on irony. Fake TV spots, fake narrative films... Then irony got the upper hand. The advertising business was beginning to take off in Cuba and someone from an ad agency approached Giroud about making a film for a Cigar brand. He accepted, and discovered he liked advertising. When People saw his videos, they told Pavel he was a “gifted storyteller” and encouraged him to try his hand at cinema. With the money from his ad work he started making short films.

Pavel Giroud had to do everything – from image to sound – when he directed his first short film. He even featured his friends in his movies, rather than professional actors.

The only film poster he has allowed in his apartment is the one for Todo por Ella, which he made with five friends in 2002. "That film really opened doors for me," he recalls gratefully. Most importantly it led to the excellent 3x2, which won the prize for best first film at the 2004 Montreal Film Festival. "3x2" was a joint effort among three young directors, Giroud along with Lester Hamlet and Esteban Insausti. Each had 30 minutes to portray a love affair. The film opens with Giroud's "Flash", set in modern-day Havana, where a photographer becomes infatuated with a 1950s fashion model. “It wasn’t a massive hit but it made us feel good and made us feel like we were making a real picture”. From there on, Pavel decided to focus his career on cinema.