NEWS
Cuban Cinema Classics Presents Revolutionary Documentaries on DVD
The
presentation of three volumes in this collection is the fruit of a collaboration
between ICAIC (the Cuban film institute) and a scholar of Cuban cinema
in the U.S.
After more than a decade tracing the path of Cuban cinema and becoming a human archive on this topic, Ann Marie Stock attended the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana to present the first volumes in the Cuban Cinema Classics series, subtitled documentaries in DVD format.
The idea grew out of various needs: on the one hand, the difficulty she and her colleagues faced in locating Cuban films and related materials in the U.S.; and on the other, the challenges posed by Cuba's economic crisis, making ever more difficult the preservation of cultural patrimony, especially film in the more durable digital format.
For this reason Ann Marie managed to capture the attention of the President of the Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC), Omar González, when he visited New York a year ago.
As a result of her work, the ICAIC now has a digital archive of its documentaries.
The Cuban Cinema Classics documentary series begins with Newsreel 49, which details the creation of ICAIC, and continues with two other thematic volumes: Protest and Cubanía.
Ann Marie proposed to select materials appropriate for a North American audience so as to present within the academic and intellectual sphere the way in which Cubans represent their own reality.
Other thematic volumes that will comprise this digitized collection of Cuba's documentary classics include: Music, Sports, Heroes, Education. The works in this series reflect Cuba's prolific and valuable unique documentary tradition through the work of highly-acclaimed filmmakers like Santiago Alvarez.
Ann Marie Stock announced next steps including a web site, a promotional CD and a book containing information about the works in the Cuban Cinema Classics project.
We'll keep you informed.
