Havana Cuba- The program of the Chaplin Festival, which will run until July 12 in this capital, began on July 2 with the screening for the first time in Cuba of the restored copy of the film The Gold Rush (1925) According to Luciano Castillo, film critic and director of the Cuban Cinematheque, the film was the pretext for this day of activities as a tribute to the artist, the Cubasi Web site reported on Thursday.

Also on July 2, an exhibition of posters of the contest held in honor of the English comedian was inaugurated at the 23 and 12 Movie Theater, attended by Oona Chaplin, granddaughter of filmmaker, who said her grandfather was a great revolutionary. The previous day, she participated in inaugural ceremony of this Festival, which took place in the same movie theater.

Chaplin had enjoyed coming to laugh with you here today, said the actress; he not only revolutionized cinema, but also the sensitivity of human beings, knocking down with his films all the walls that could have separated us.

The Chaplin Festival, organized by the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) and the Cuban Cinematheque, along with other cultural institutions, also includes an exhibition -for the first time in the Americas- by Paddy McDonald, one of the world's most important collectors of objects and materials from the English comedian.

This exhibition will take place in the galleries of the capital's Charles Chaplin Movie Theater, the ICAIC Cultural Cinematographic Center and the Fine Arts Museum.

The Festival also includes the exhibition of shorts and feature films by the filmmaker, as well as a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Covarrubias Hall of the National Theater on July 12, with a program that will include This is my song and Smile by Chaplin, along with compositions by his favorite authors, among them Leonard Bernstein.