Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / Caribbean / Cuba / All Films

Cubanos, Life and Death of a Revolution

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Cubanos, Life and Death of a Revolution
Buy Now: $320.00

Cubanos draws an impressionist portrait of the international Cuban community, whose identity has been fragmented by 48 years of dictatorship, as it struggles to leave the 20th century behind. While the music barely camouflages the misery and corruption in Cuba, the buzz and hum of industry and media fails to mask the cultural gap between the active Cuban community in Miami and their home island.

The film's main character, Catuey, a Cuban musician living in Québec, fills his songs with images of an ideal Cuba hurt by the division of its people and the group-think that prevails in Miami. As he travels, Catuey is confronted with contradictions among his countrymen and his own demons, and ends his odyssey drained and disappointed not to have found a simple path to reconciliation. Rather than sensationalizing this cultural disconnect, Cubanos takes a holistic approach to foretelling the identity issues the Cuban community will face upon the death of Fidel Castro.

Filmmaker Yan Giroux's camera scans the day-to-day lives of Cubans in Cuba and Miami for vestiges of the revolutionary dream and translates the chaos of the Cubans' reality into a set of evocative signs. While Catuey and the interviewees try to define themselves both as individuals and as Cubans, the camera paints a broader, more complex portrait of a people held prisoner by their history. Amidst Havana's ruins, the interviewees' faces are blurred to protect their identities, a formal constraint that becomes an aesthetic symptom in the crumbling landscape of Cuban communism.

Echoing each other throughout the film, interviews and travel scenes explore the many facets of a culture that is developing differently on either side of the Straits of Florida. A faded flag flutters in the wind as a saw whines, far away. Catuey croons Cuba's national anthem like a lullaby. The ambiguity between dream and nightmare is what defines this revolution, its romanticism tattered by disillusionment.

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¡Luchando!

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

¡Luchando!
Buy Now: $320.00

Shot in Cuba in 1994, ¡Luchando! examines how people were surviving the hardships caused first by the US "blockade" of Cuba (beginning in the early 1960s) and increased by the more recent loss of trade with the countries of Eastern Europe. The film portrays the everyday life, atmosphere and character of Cuba at the time of filming.

The central personality in the film is Abel Prieto, who is both the President of UNEAC, the national writers and artists union, and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The film features a variety of local performing artists including a dissident theater group in Havana, a more traditional African theater group in Santiago, and the film star Jorge Perugorria. Also included are street interviews exploring the range of the peoples feelings for their country, and contemporary Cuban music.

Made by Australian documentary filmmaker, Russel Porter was invited to teach at the international film and television school (EICTV) located some forty kilometers from Havana. While there, Porter took the opportunity to make a film about life in Cuba today. Apart from Russel and producer Denise Patience, the film crew was Cuban: cinematographer Alejandro Perez, sound recordist Lenin de los Reyes, production manager Elaine Santos, and local liaison Alex Alday.

The film is useful for Latin American studies, political science programs, cultural studies; theater, art, music, and human rights programs.

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Sin Embargo

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT

Sin Embargo
Buy Now: $320.00

After the revolution of 1959 and the U.S. embargo that followed, the people of Cuba were left to fend for themselves. Deprived of even the most basic goods, they scavenge the alleys and scrap heaps, giving new vitality to the discarded. Their recycled products are often remarkably ingenious and creative.

For Andrs the sculptor, Tomas the canary breeder, and the other subjects of the film, even the greatest pressure – whether levied by government or circumstance – cannot crush the spirit nor quash the desire to forge a better life for themselves and their families. Shot entirely in Cuba, Sin Embargo is a look into the hearts and dreams of struggling peoples and a tribute to their optimistic and resourceful determination to survive.

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