Cuban Cinema without Borders
October 23–November 16, 2024
Through captivating storytelling, this series celebrates the resilience of independent Cuban cinema and the enduring legacy of trailblazers like Nicolás Guillén Landrián. Explore themes of exile, motherhood, and nationhood in a formally stunning collection of fiction, documentary, and experimental films that reflect on Cuban lives and imaginaries in the island and its diasporas.
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Wild Woman
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Mafifa
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Landrián
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Persona
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Calls from Moscow
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Films
Landrián
Ernesto Daranas Serrano
Cuba, Spain, 2023Wednesday, October 23 7:00 PMIntroduced by Lázaro GonzálezView DetailsNicolás Guillén Landrián, Cuba’s first Black filmmaker, faced censorship, imprisonment, and exile because his distinctive style clashed with the Cuban state. In 2019 efforts to restore his “cursed” films began, leading to this documentary. Join us for this special screening, which opens the series Cuban Cinema without Borders.
Landrián Restored
Thursday, October 24 7:00 PMPrerecorded Video Introduction by Dean Luis Reyes and Lázaro GonzálezView DetailsDespite the censorship and oblivion of the Cuban national film industry, Nicolás Guillén Landrián’s films survive as one of the most potent archives of Afro-Cuban lives. This program features the California premiere of new restorations, offering a rare glimpse into Landrián’s enduring legacy.
Cuban Contemporary Short Films I: Dreaming of a Nation
Saturday, October 26 7:00 PMNils Longueira Borrego and Lázaro González in ConversationView DetailsExplore Cuba’s culture of resistance through powerful and intimate short films—from the political turmoil in Now! and Persona to the melancholic vision of Havana in Casa de la noche and the dystopian Tundra. The program ends on a humorous note, with Ana A. Alpizar’s piece, which introduces us to Miami as another landscape of Cuban imaginaries.
Wild Woman
Alán González
Cuba, 2023Sunday, October 27 7:00 PMAlán González and Lázaro González in ConversationView DetailsAfter premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, Wild Woman became one of the most celebrated Cuban feature debuts in the past decade. Set in a Havana slum, the film follows a Cuban mother as she battles social prejudice, machismo, poverty, and violence to protect her son after a violent altercation goes viral.
Cuban Contemporary Short Films II: Voices of Displacement
Saturday, November 2 7:00 PMLázaro González and Caleb Murray-Bozeman in ConversationView DetailsFrom a Cuban immigrant in New York (Ángela) to the metaphorical uprootedness in Petricor, the critique of romanticized communist nostalgia in Souvenir, a mother’s longing for reunification with her son in Parole, and the dystopian vision in History Is Written at Night, these films offer nuanced perspectives on diaspora, exile, and nation building amidst Cuba’s historical exodus.
Calls from Moscow
Luis Alejandro Yero
Cuba, Germany, Norway, 2023Sunday, November 3 2:00 PMView DetailsFollow four queer Cuban migrants navigating isolation amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Calls from Moscow, one of the most striking documentaries of contemporary Cuban cinema. This special screening is preceded by Gretel Marín’s Roads of Lava, another beautiful portrayal of queer activism and anti-racist pedagogies within Havana.
Mafifa
Daniela Muñoz Barroso
Cuba, 2021Saturday, November 16 7:00 PMPrerecorded Video Introduction by Daniela Muñoz BarrosoView DetailsDespite significant hearing loss, Daniela Muñoz Barroso delves into the legacy of Mafifa, a pioneering Cuban conga bell player. This INSTAR Film Festival award-winning film uses archival and autoethnographic techniques to candidly and innovatively confront structural racism in postrevolutionary Cuba.