cubafilmfest
-
Screen Cuba presents: De Cierta Manera/ One way or another by Sara Gomez
Sara Gomez, a genuinely original filmmaker and the first female director at the Cuban Cinema Institute (ICAIC), passionately explores everyday life with all its turmoil in the revolution’s early days. Female and black, Gomez was committed to the revolution and to changing society by creating a new cinematic language that addressed the contemporary themes of…
-
Screen Cuba presents: La Muerte de un Burocrata / The Death of a Bureaucrat by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
This classic film satirises how red tape in the revolution affects the everyday lives of its people. As a badge of honour, a model worker is buried with his labour card in his pocket. But his widow needs it to claim the benefits she is entitled to. The film traces the family’s often hilarious Kafka-esque…
-
Screen Cuba presents: Escena Eliminada / Blank by Daniel Santoyo
Young filmmaker Daniel Santoyo directs this innovative short about a new pandemic that is sweeping the world which causes some of the dead to return to life. As a journalist is filmed showing a new facility to house bodies in an attempt to contain the disease, the camera inadvertently reveals the awakening of a woman’s…
-
Screen Cuba presents: …Y Tenemos Sabor / …And we’ve got flavour by Sara Gómez
Sara Gómez is a participant-observer in this rich documentary from 1967 about the origins of Afro Cuban music experienced through the instruments used. The film consists of short interviews, footage of impromptu street performances and some studio recordings. Gómez’s commitment to featuring multiple voices in the post-revolutionary society results in a fascinating history of how…
-
Screen Cuba presents: Strawberry and Chocolate (1993) by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea & Juan Carlos Tabio
The late Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, often cited as Cuba’s greatest director, worked alongside Juan Carlos Tabío to create this Oscar-nominated modern classic. The film charts the relationship of David, a young Communist student, with a flamboyant gay Catholic writer, Diego. A Communist Party stalwart entices David to spy on Diego, to entrap him. Instead, David becomes…
-
Screen Cuba presents: José Martí, The Eye of the Canary by Fernando Pérez
An excellent example of an historical drama, a genre in which Cuban filmmakers excel. The Eye of the Canary is inspired by the little-known early years of José Martí, the great 19th century Cuban poet and activist, father of Cuban independence and national hero. The film tracks the boy’s growing political awareness, alternating between a grim realism…
-
Screen Cuba presents: NOW! by Santiago Álvarez
NOW! is a hard-hitting documentary short about the civil rights movement in the US. It was made in 1965 by Santiago Alvarez, known as one of the most influential documentary filmmakers the revolution produced. He had spent part of the 50s living in the States. For 30 years he headed up the Cuban Film Institute’s now…
-
Cuban designer Emii creates our Festival poster
Screen Cuba is delighted to announce that the accomplished Cuban graphic designer and illustrator Emilio Cruañas Pérez has created an amazing poster for the Film Festival. The poster is now on its way to the printers and we can’t wait to reveal it to you. It will be sold to raise funds for the digitisation…
-
Thanks to Havana Glasgow Film Festival
The Havana Glasgow Film Festival has sent best wishes to the first edition of Screen Cuba and we return the greeting. We wish you success in your preparations for 2025! “The Havana Glasgow Film Festival would like to say good luck as we prepare for our 10th anniversary festival in 2025. We’re delighted to see…
-
THE BROTHERS /Los Hermanos
Screen Cuba will show this brilliantly-crafted film that affirms the power of art, in this case music. Directed by Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider of Patchworks Films, a progressive production company in San Francisco, this documentary tracks the lives of two Cuban brothers, both virtuoso musicians. Illmar López-Gavilán leaves Cuba for further tuition, ending up…
-
Sara Gómez: Cuba’s first female film director
Born in Guanabacoa, near Havana (November 8, 1942 – June 2, 1974) Sara Gomez died at just 32 years old, but her work endures. She trained as a musician and ethnographer, studying at the Havana Conservatory. She turned to journalism to express her political views and after the revolution went to ICAIC to work on…
-
La Súper: the Cuban superheroine fighting violence against women
Cuba’s first superhero feature length animation premiered in December 2022 at Havana’s New Latin American Cinema festival. ‘La Super’ translated as ‘Supergal’ features a feminist superheroine based on a comic strip made by director Ernesto Piña with scriptwriter Hugo Rivalta more than a decade ago. “We have created an international story that can be understood…
SCREEN CUBA, 15-28 March 2026, LONDON & BEYOND 