memorias del subdesarrollo is from tomas gutierrez alea
he & other extraordinary filmakers from the young revolution
are in silence or leave cuba, like the photographer (antifranquista)
nestor almendros who done more than 20 documentary films in la habana
castrista with the ICAIC (film institute marxista style) who wrote in his
book "camera days" (seix barral 1983. p.46):
"in 1961, after bahia de cochinos, the film industry in cuba was
nationalized under de dominance of alfredo guevara valdes (nothing to do
with el che) he controled personaly all productions, distribution, the
movie theaters, laboratorys & the onlyone cinematographic magazine. all
like shumyatsky, the sadly famous minister of cinematography of stalin.
guevara valdes impòsed decisions in absolutlely way, over all of us. at
last i realized that we are not workiung for the people of cuba, than for
the statal monopoly & that the autority acted not like a revolutionary one
than like a any productor capitalist. in other words: we are forced to done
films of propaganda permanently , so i start to film weekend with my bolex
16mm a short film very different with virgin tails of other proyects. i
called "people on beach"
and there was a study of behaviors... for that they start to call me
contrarevolutionary
they censored my film , the montaje room was closed for me with two
milicians on the door
the film was banned because was not a politic one... "
...pez
ps: nestor almendros have a long carrer in europa & US after leave cuba
he work in extraordinary films sophie's choice, still of the night, le
dernier metro, the blue lagoon, kramer vs kramer, and many others... he
never return to cuba.
(the text of almendros is my translate, sorry for mistakes)
At 10:28 am -0700 29/8/00, ann klefstad wrote:
>Memories of Underdevelopment was a Cuban film, a fictional film, not a
>docu, very lovely.
>Burnt by the Sun, another lovely harrowing thing from USSR
>Lots of stunning Fifth Generation Chinese films, Red Sorghum, Big Parade,
>Blue Kite
>of course all those old Eisensteins, Potemkin, Ivan, etc
>
>Eryk Salvaggio wrote:
>
>> Trying to steer the Cuban discussion into art topica
>> [as revolutionary art is always a fave discussion topic
>> of mine:]
>>
>> Oddly enough, the sundance channel just played
>> "A History Of Underdevelopment," a documentary made
>> in Cuba about the disappearance of hope in Cuba
>> post- Castro....
>>
>> It was certainly not an invigorating film, ending with
>> the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Speech Castro gave
>> about how Cuba would not back down, how they
>> were United as a nation, that this was a test of thier
>> independance and unity as a nation- and of course, they
>> backed down. Fitting ending I think...
>>
>> Does anyone know of any other movies made within
>> Communist Regimes? I was fascinated by a look at
>> Animation in the Soviet Union on Bravo's animation
>> festival a while back; but these films seem very hard to
>> find in the USA.
>>
>> mn wrote:
>>
>> > > A big jail??? Oh, please. The Cold War is over. Would you say the
>>same thing about Mexico? How about any other third world country. How
>>much time did you spend there? Where did you go? Any tourist with $$$ is
>>king anywhere.
>> >
>> > About a week ago I saw this documentary about Cuba and recycling. It
>>doesn't actually seem like a paradise to Cubans. The embargo kind of
>>sucks. It never cleared to me when the embargo started and when it, if it
>>has, stopped.
>> >
>> > Me thinks in France tourist with dollars isn't king, but more likely a
>>court jester. At least speaking just Finnish and bad English wasn't
>>adored in Paris back in late eighties.
>> >
>> > mn
