Table Of Contenti
Guy Baron is Senior Lecturer at Aberystwyth University, UK. He has
published widely on Cuba, in particular on Cuban cinema – including
his book Gender in Cuban Cinema: From the Modern to the Postmodern
(2011) – and his many articles have appeared in Hispanic Studies, Revista
Cine Cubano and the Bulletin of Latin American Research amongst other
publications.
Ann Marie Stock is Vice Provost and an award-w inning Professor of
Hispanic Studies and Film and Media, as well as a university library faculty
scholar, at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. She is the author of
On Location in Cuba: Street Filmmaking during Times of Transition (2009,
2015) and editor of World Film Locations: Havana (2014). Dr Stock is the
founding director of Cuban Cinema Classics (www.cubancinemaclassics.
org), a non-p rofit initiative designed to subtitle and disseminate Cuban
documentaries.
Antonio Álvarez Pitaluga is Vice-D ean of the Faculty of Philosophy and
History at the University of Havana. He specialises in Cuban cultural his-
tory and is published widely, including his book Revolución, hegemonía y
poder: Cuba 1985– 1898 (2012).
ii
Series Editors:
Lúcia Nagib, Professor of Film at the University of Reading
Julian Ross, Research Fellow at the University of Westminster
Advisory Board: Laura Mulvey (UK), Robert Stam (USA), Ismail Xavier (Brazil),
Dudley Andrew (USA)
The Tauris World Cinema Series aims to reveal and celebrate the richness and complexity
of film art across the globe, exploring a wide variety of cinemas set within their own
cultures and as they interconnect in a global context. The books in the series will represent
innovative scholarship, in tune with the multicultural character of contemporary audiences.
Drawing upon an international authorship, they will challenge outdated conceptions of
world cinema, and provide new ways of understanding a field at the centre of film studies in
an era of transnational networks.
Published and forthcoming in the Edited by Guy Baron and
World Cinema series: Ann Marie Stock, with
Antonio Álvarez Pitaluga
Animation in the Middle East: Practice and
Aesthetics from Baghdad to Casablanca The Cinema of Jia Zhangke: Realism and
By Stefanie Van de Peer Memory in Chinese Film
By Cecília Mello
Basque Cinema: A Cultural and Political
History The Cinema of Sri Lanka:
By Rob Stone and María Pilar South Asian Film in Texts and Contexts
Rodríguez By Ian Conrich and Vilasnee
Tampoe- Hautin
Brazil on Screen: Cinema Novo, New
Cinema, Utopia Contemporary New Zealand Cinema
By Lúcia Nagib Edited by Ian Conrich and Stuart Murray
The Cinema of Cuba: Contemporary Peruvian Cinema:
Contemporary Film and the History, Identity and Violence on Screen
Legacy of Revolution By Sarah Barrow
iii
Cosmopolitan Cinema: Cross- cultural Performing Authorship: Self- inscription and
Encounters in East Asian Film Corporeality in the Cinema
By Felicia Chan By Cecilia Sayad
East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Queer Masculinities in Latin American
Transnational Connections on Film Cinema: Male Bodies and Narrative
Edited by Leon Hunt and Leung Wing- Fai Representations
By Gustavo Subero
East Asian Film Noir: Transnational
Encounters and Intercultural Dialogue Realism in Greek Cinema: From the
Edited by Chi-Y un Shin and Mark Gallagher Post- War Period to the Present
By Vrasidas Karalis
Film Genres and African
Cinema: Postcolonial Encounters Realism of the Senses in Contemporary
By Rachael Langford World Cinema: The Experience of
Physical Reality
Global Portuguese Cinema: Industry, History
By Tiago de Luca
and Culture
Edited by Mariana Liz The Spanish Fantastic: Contemporary
Filmmaking in Horror,
Impure Cinema: Intermedial and
Fantasy and Sci- fi
Intercultural Approaches to Film
By Shelagh- Rowan Legg
Edited by Lúcia Nagib and Anne Jerslev
Stars in World Cinema: Screen
Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War
Icons and Star Systems Across Cultures
and Beyond
Edited by Andrea Bandhauer and
By Lina Khatib
Michelle Royer
New Argentine Cinema
Theorizing World Cinema
By Jens Andermann
Edited by Lúcia Nagib, Chris Perriam
New Directions in German Cinema and Rajinder Dudrah
Edited by Paul Cooke and
Viewing Film
Chris Homewood
By Donald Richie
New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity
Queries, ideas and submissions to:
and Memory
By Asuman Suner Series Editor: Professor Lúcia Nagib –
[email protected]
On Cinema
Glauber Rocha Series Editor: Dr Julian Ross –
Edited by Ismail Xavier [email protected]
Palestinian Filmmaking in Israel: Narratives Cinema Editor at I.B.Tauris, Maddy
of Memory and Identity in the Middle East Hamey- Thomas – mhamey-
By Yael Friedman [email protected]
iv
‘These varied and vibrant essays at the cutting edge of Cuban cin-
ema research offer important accounts of film directors’, such as Tomás
Gutiérrez Alea, analysis of headline themes – like “documentary-versus-
feature” debates, the “Special Period”, pop music and the zombie movie –
and insider information to complement the assessments coming from
abroad. A highly recommended collection!’
Stephen M. Hart, University College London
v
T H E C I N E M A O F
C U B A
CONTEMPORARY FILM AND
THE LEGACY OF REVOLUTION
EDITED BY
GUY BARON AND ANN MARIE STOCK,
WITH ANTONIO ÁLVAREZ PITALUGA
vi
Published in 2017
by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London • New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright Editorial Selection © 2017 Guy Baron and Ann Marie Stock,
with Antonio Álvarez Pitaluga
Copyright Individual Chapters © 2017 Antonio Álvarez Pitaluga, Guy Baron,
Michael Chanan, Dunja Fehimovic, Alejandro L. Fernández Calderón,
Jessica Gibbs, Oneyda González, Jesús Guanche, Ryan Prout, Carlos Y. Rodríguez,
Ann Marie Stock, Rob Stone, Aram Vidal, Zaira Zarza
The right of Guy Baron and Ann Marie Stock, with Antonio Álvarez Pitaluga
to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted by the editors in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this
book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
Tauris World Cinema Series
ISBN: 978 1 78453 814 9
eISBN: 978 1 78672 253 9
ePDF: 978 1 78673 253 8
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
vii
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Contributors xi
Acknowledgements xv
I PAN / CONTEXT / NATION
Introduction to Part One: History of Cuban Cinema:
A Pending Task for the Social Sciences
in the Twenty- First Century 3
Antonio Álvarez Pitaluga
1 Brief Notes on a History of Cuban Cinema (1959–2 015) 9
Antonio Álvarez Pitaluga
2 Cuban Cinema at the Start of the New Millennium:
Dysfunction, Isolation and the Struggle for Identity 30
Guy Baron
3 Community Film and Audiovisual Production
in Cuba 55
Jesús Guanche
4 Cinema, Race and Revolution: Dialogue
and Disagreements of a Cuban Trilogy 75
Alejandro L. Fernández Calderón
II ZOOM / TEXT / AUTEUR
Introduction to Part Two: Cuban Cinema: Crisis or
Transition? 95
Guy Baron
5 Cubist Cuba: Memorias del desarrollo
(Memories of Overdevelopment, 2010) 105
Rob Stone
vii
viii
Contents
6 Then Came the Special Period: Cinema
of Fernando Pérez 133
Michael Chanan
7 Zombie Nation: Monstrous Identities in
Three Cuban Films 147
Dunja Fehimovic
8 Director as Social Critic: Guantanamera
and Barrio Cuba 171
Jessica Gibbs
9 Within, Against, Inside, Out: Ian Padrón,
Fuera de liga, Habanastation and Music Video 195
Ryan Prout
III REVERSE SHOT / INDIVIDUAL / TESTIMONY
Introduction to Part Three: Struggling against
Separation: Cuban Filmmakers Create and Connect
in the Twenty-First Century 223
Ann Marie Stock
10 Circular Road: National Cinema – Global Film 236
Aram Vidal
11 Trains of Silence 251
Oneyda González
12 From the Community to the World: Perspectives of
an Individual Creator within the Televisión Serrana
Audiovisual Collective 266
Carlos Y. Rodríguez
13 From Exilic to Diasporic: New Cuban Cinemas
in the United States 281
Zaira Zarza
Bibliography 302
Index 314
viii
ix
List of Illustrations
2.1 Carla (Thaís Valdés) in Nada (ICAIC, 2001) 42
4.1 Irremediablemente juntos (ICAIC, 2012) 76
5.1– 5.2 Collages of sex and revolution
(Pirámide, 2010) 115
5.3– 5.4 Collages of power and surrender
(Pirámide, 2010) 116
5.5– 5.6 Claudia, real and imagined
(Pirámide, 2010) 122
5.7– 5.8 The fragmented Deirdre, contemplated
(Pirámide, 2010) 124
5.9– 5.10 The exchange of human contact for
simulacra (Pirámide, 2010) 126
5.11– 5.12 Simulacrum that replaces the real Claudia
(Pirámide, 2010) 128
5.13– 5.14 Narrativisation and the spectacle of the self
(Pirámide, 2010) 129
7.1 Juan de los muertos (La Zanfoña
Producciones and Producciones de la 5ta
Avenida, 2011) 155
8.1 Barrio Cuba (ICAIC, 2005) 179
9.1 Ian Padrón (Courtesy of Ian Padrón) 200
Part 3.1 Larga distancia (ICAIC, 2010) 226
10.1 Aram Vidal directing on set (Courtesy of
Aram Vidal) 246
11.1 Poster for Severo secreto by Alucho
(Alejandro Rodríguez) (Poster courtesy of
director Oneyda González) 259
ix
