New Documentary Chronicles The Oliva Tobacco Co.
The Ybor City Cigar Festival starts in Tampa this Sunday, but there’s a good reason for you to head down to Cigar City even earlier. On Friday, the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival will be screening a documentary that chronicles the Oliva tobacco-growing family and its enormous importance to the premium cigar industry. Called Succeeding Against The Odds: The Oliva Tobacco Story, the documentary will be shown at 3:15 at the NCG Cinema at the Citrus Park Center Town Mall.
The contribution that the Oliva family has made (and continues to make) to the cigar world cannot be overstated. In 1934, Oliva Tobacco Co. was started by Cigar Aficionado Hall-of-Famer Angel Oliva Sr. He was a tireless broker of Cuban tobacco, supplying leaf to the U.S. market back when there was a thriving cigar manufacturing industry in the United States, especially in Tampa. After the Cuban embargo took hold, Oliva began planting Cuban seeds throughout Central and South America. If you talk to the veteran cigarmakers of today, many say that the industry wouldn’t be where it is now if it weren’t for Oliva’s foresight and fortitude. Oliva Sr. passed away in 1996, but, spoiler alert: the family still fuels the industry.
Today, Oliva Tobacco Co. (not to be confused with Oliva Cigar Co.) specializes in growing high-quality Ecuador Habano wrapper leaf. This tobacco is prized for its uniform color, elasticity, pristine texture, excellent combustion and distinct aroma—and can be found on some of the finest handmade cigars in the business. Oliva also grows extensively in Nicaragua, processing its tobacco through its subsidiary ProceNicsa in Estelí.
The hour-and-a-half documentary was researched and written by executive producer Seth Schwartz, and directed by Alvin Daniels, who shot the footage on a digital HD Canon T7 and a 4K Black Magic Pocket camera. It features never-before-seen family home movies, historical photographs and interviews with Angel’s son John Oliva Sr., his grandsons, John Jr. and “Trey” Oliva, and such prominent cigarmakers as Carlos Fuente Jr. and Eric Newman.
Succeeding Against The Odds: The Oliva Tobacco Story has been nominated by the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival for Best Documentary.
Click here to see the trailer.
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