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Editor's Note:
This month, the Latin American Video Archives' (LAVA's) electronic "Featured Titles" newsletter pays tribute to the work of famed director, Tomas "Titon" Gutierrez Alea. Below is a listing of all of his films that are available for sale, on video, in the United States. This month, we also highlight a number of contemporary/historic documentaries that relate to Cuba. These titles represent only a small portion of the Cuban titles in the LAVA collection. Please use our web site at http://www.lavavideo.org to locate other Cuban, Latin American or U.S. Latino titles.
This project has received support from the MacArthur Foundation, National Video Resources, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Ernesto Che Guevara: The Bolivian Diary Get Details and Purchasing Info
Richard Dindo
Documentary 92 minutes 1994
With English subtitles
An intriguing look inside Cuba's incredible revolutionary leader Che Guevara, who, at age 39, was executed in 1967 by the Bolivian army, aided by the CIA. Guevara's diary, a detailed personal account of his futile 11-month attempt to foment revolution in Bolivia, is the basis of this moving portrait. Che's relationship with the mysterious Tania, his betrayal by local peasants, his constant battle with asthma, and his distress at the death of his comrades are recounted. Interviews with Bolivians who met Che during these final days testify to a man who embraced sacrifice for his ideals.
Purchase Price: $ 49.95
Photo around the world, A Get Details and Purchasing Info
Pedro Chaskel
Documentary 15 minutes 1986
With English subtitles
Photographer Alberto Korda recounts his feeling at the moment he snapped the world famous photo of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. "As my finger pressed the trigger," Korda recalls, "I sensed that I had just captured an important historic moment." This memorable image took on a life of its own. As the portrait of Che to be remembered and revered, the photo circulated internationally, and was used as a symbol of inspiration by the left. This documentary is a fast-paced collage of images which follow this photo as it was used to represent liberation and human rights struggles in demonstrations worldwide.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95
For the First Time Get Details
Octavio Cortazar
Documentary 9 minutes 1967
With English subtitles
This classic documentary shows how in the early years of the revolution, the newly formed Cuban film institute (ICAIC) sent its portable movie theater (a truck with a projector) around the countryside. Movie screens were erected in the town plaza of isolated villages and Cuban peasants were exposed to movies for the first time.
Havana Nagila: Jews in Cuba Get Details and Purchasing Info
Laura Paull
Documentary 60 minutes 1995
With English subtitles
An investigation of the Jewish experience in Cuba, this documentary offers a unique window on Cuba as an evolving nation and culture. It traces the reasons for Jewish immigration to Cuba, the growth of a thriving Jewish population , the impact of the revolution, the experience of remaining Jewish Cubans under the Communist Government and the current resurgence of Judism. It also looks at the meaning of Jewsih identity for contemporary Cuban Jews, both secular and religious, and some of the international issues that affect the community's future.
Purchase Price: $ 59.95
Malecon Get Details and Purchasing Info
Jan Van Bilsen and Dirk Vandersypen
documentary 25 minutes 1995
With English subtitles
This thoughtful and personal documentary focuses on the struggles and economic hardships endured in Havana in the last decade. Its protagonists are the clients of an ersatz taxi driver, who drives up and down the avenue that skirts Havana’s seawall (the “malecón”) in his own car, chauffeuring people for a fee. With the lack of gas and car parts, says one passenger, transportation is a nightmare. The car itself is more than a decade older than its driver. It is a balmy Wednesday afternoon and the malecón is packed with people. There is no work, but to make ends meet, they sell pure rum, rough moonshine, handicrafts, pizza. Some play music, others sunbathe, gossip, or dance to the radio. Prostitutes, some as young as twelve, look for a “friend.” A boy tries to jump in the door of a moving bus. The people watch as an improvised boat washes up, with 9 men crammed on top –they tried to float to Florida but the bad tides sent them back. As the police move in, a man rides by on his bike with a poodle in the front basket. These are scenes from the life of a city whose inhabitants are enduring a difficult transition – from the relative economic security they enjoyed under the socialist economy to their reality after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which they face hunger and diminished opportunities. Their reactions are varied, but the director captures their carefully worded but nonetheless sincere impressions of Cuba and its government. One woman calls Fidel a good man – but very isolated. A poet tells a joke: the government has already collapsed, but with so much bureaucracy, they just haven’t realized it yet. From bitter to brave to nonchalant, this video captures the variety of thoughts and opinions of the residents of a city caught in tough times.
Purchase Price: $ 79.95
Changing Tides Get Details and Purchasing Info
Luis Felipe Bernaza
Documentary 34 minutes 1994
With English subtitles
This powerful documentary examines the phenomenon of the Cuban "balseros," those Cuban citizens who in the summer of 1994, in response to the island's deepening economic crisis, took to the sea in flimsy, homemade rafts in a desperate attempt to reach Florida. In a series of emotionally moving interviews, the Cuban "balseros" talk about their motivations for leaving their homeland. These heartfelt conversations, along with scenes of emotional farewells between family members and poetry written especially for the film, illuminate with remarkable sensitivity both the tragedy and the folly of this situation.
Purchase Price: $ 250.00
Butterflies on the Scaffold Get Details and Purchasing Info
Margaret Gilpin/Luis Felipe Bernaza
Documentary 74 minutes 1996
With English subtitles
This award winning documentary looks at the daily life of gays and transvestites in Cuba. "Butterflies on the Scaffold" follows a group of working class drag-queens who gained their neighbors' respect and became an integral part of the community by forging a coalition with the female leaders of the local construction brigade and performing in the workers' dining room. The documentary includes on-stage performances and interviews with community leaders, performers and their relatives.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95
Export TV: Anatomy of Electronic Invasion Get Details and Purchasing Info
Rafael Andreu & Monica Melamid
Documentary 25 minutes 1989
With English subtitles
This documentary explores TV Marti -- the broadcasting mechanism created by the United States' government as a result of the passage of the Television Broadcasting to Cuba Act, whichmandates the broadcast of U.S. propaganda to Cuba. Clearly oppositional, this video makes a case for the futility and injustice of this U.S. effort, examining the legal, technical, political, and social aspects of TV Marti. The tape explores Cuban reactions to this affront to sovereignty, including the range of options available for jamming the signal and retaliatingagainst U.S. stations. Finally, it suggests that the result is a potential for increased animosity and expanded conflict.
Purchase Price: $ 195.00
Cuba Va: Challenge of the Next Generation Get Details and Purchasing Info
Gail Dolgin/Vicente Franco
Documentary 60 minutes 1993
With English subtitles
This documentary takes a critical look at the social and economic situations in Cuba today, through the eyes of its youth.The video provides interviews with young people; their discussions and arguments about the economic situation, the government and political system; and the responses of those inauthority to youth subcultures such as rock, rap, hard core, and reggae.
Purchase Price: $ 350.00
Cuba 111 Get Details and Purchasing Info
Jan Van Bilsen and Dirk Vandersypen
documentary 52 minutes 1995
With English subtitles
111 Cuba Street is an address in the grandly dilapidated neighborhood of Old Havana. From the outside it is merely a faded blue wall and a slowly rotting oak door. But inside, it is a community, whose residents all share the same patio, the center of social life where the children play, the adults play dominoes, and the old sit and remember. But the solidarity and joy with which the neighbors live belies the daily struggles they have to manage, their tremendous stoicism and ingenuity in the face of a devastated economy. Papito struggles to support a sick child. Carlos dreams of escaping the country to support his “nation and his flag” – not Cuba but his 7-month-old son. Xiomara calls herself “a true revolutionary” and arrives early to vote in a municipal election. Standing proud despite his white beard and fading vision, Alberto calls the vote a waste of time and goes to beg money from tourists. Old Betica tries to stretch her tiny pension by selling cakes. Another neighbor waits for money from abroad, and weeps over the pictures of her two daughters in Miami. No one has enough money, and a passerby says she hasn’t bought new underwear in 2 years. The neighbors of 111 Cuba St. are a microcosm of Havana. They are in “la lucha,” the struggle to make ends meet, but their courage and dignity never flags, in a city where hardship has made the community even stronger.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95
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