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34 - Critique and Decentralization in Cuban Film After 1989

from Part V - Cuba and Its Diasporas into the New Millennium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2024

By
Ann Marie Stock  and
Dean Luis Reyes
Edited by
Vicky Unruh  and
Jacqueline Loss
Vicky Unruh
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
Jacqueline Loss
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
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Summary

This chapter surveys the economic, cultural, and political factors that transformed the Cuban audiovisual landscape beginning in 1989, elucidating the multiple challenges tackled by filmmakers: material shortages, intermittent censorship, and a sometimes tense relationship with the official Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC). The chapter demonstrates that, in this richly inventive period, films of all length and genres, drawing on multiple media and replete with Cuban versions of manga, gangsters, and zombies, not only questioned what constitutes state-sponsored, independent, national, or transnational filmmaking, but also carried out a revision of Cuban history into contemporary everyday life. Key factors illuminated include the mentoring role assumed by seasoned director Fernando Pérez; the emergence of women filmmakers for the first time since director Sara Gómez (1942–1974); the entrepreneurial deployment of new technologies; the hybridity of local, international, official, and nonofficial funding sources; the diversification of constituencies and locales represented; and the critical importance of ICAIC’s annual Muestra Joven, or Festival of Young Cuban Filmmakers.

Keywords

decentralizationCuban film after 1989ICAICMuestra JovenFernando Pérez (1944–)entrepreneurial filmmakingnew genresdigital technologiestaboo subjectsnational and transnational filmmaking
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature , pp. 532 - 548
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Works Cited

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