Subject Librarian
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Other library resource(s)
Digitalia Film Library is another streaming service to which the Library subscribes. They have several collections in their library including one for Cuban cinema.
Cuban cinema from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286The Cuban viewing public developed a healthy appetite for cinema during the first half of the twentieth century, but in spite of many efforts and some notable early films by Cuban filmmakers and producers, a national cinema initially failed to develop as fully in Cuba as in some other Latin American countries. It was only after the revolution came into power on 1 January 1959 that a national film industry was set in motion and a national cinema developed in earnest.
Digitalia film library. Cuban cinemaCall Number: Streaming videoThis is a collection of over 50 Cuban films available to stream.
Introduction to Cuban cinema
Moving images were first seen in Cuba at an exhibition of the Lumière Cinématographe in Havana on 15 January 1897; and in the following year US intervention in the Cuban War of Independence brought North American cameramen to the island to record the conflict on celluloid. Cuban film historians have suggested that the period before 1905 was one of ‘simple spectacle’ while the years between 1906 and 1918 saw the consolidation of cinema as a business, led at this point by European (and particularly Italian and French) entrepreneurs. But Cuba can boast at least one pioneering native-born filmmaker, the highly prolific Enrique Díaz Quesada, director, among numerous other films, of Manuel García o el rey de los campos de Cuba/Manuel García (1913). Cuba’s last silent film, La virgen de la Caridad/The Virgin of Charity (Ramón Peon) was made in 1930, while the country’s earliest feature-length sound film is thought to be La serpiente roja/The Red Serpent (Ernesto Caparrós, 1937). In this period, however, attempts to foster an enduring local production base were generally shortlived: for example, Estudios Péliculas Cubanas (PECUSA), founded in Havana in 1938, made only six films. The 1940s and 1950s saw a number of co-productions (including La rosa blanca/The White Rose (1954), directed by Mexico’s Emilio ‘El Indio’ Fernández), but these were essentially Mexican films, and it has been said that the most distinguished films made in Cuba before the 1959 revolution were Hollywood movies on location, with Cuba providing an exotic backdrop and tropical atmosphere for films featuring sultry female stars. ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Cuba, film in. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 Aug. 2022
Searching the online catalog
You can use the subject headings below to find resources on Cuban cinema in the online catalog. A call number range is also included.
Introductory reading(s)
Afro-Cuban identity in postrevolutionary novel and film: inclusion, loss, and cultural resistance by Call Number: Baker-Berry PQ 7372 .M67 2012ISBN: 9781611484236Afro-Cuban Identity in Post-Revolutionary Novel and Film examines the changing discourse on race as portrayed in Cuban novels and films produced after 1959. Andrea Easley Morris analyzes the artists' participation in and questioning of the revolutionary government's revision of national identity to include the unique experience and contributions of Cuban men and women of African descent. While the Cuban revolution brought sweeping changes that vastly improved the material condition of many Afro-Cubans, at the time overrepresented among Cuba's poor and marginalized, the government's official position was that racial inequities had been resolved as early as 1962. ...
The cinema of Cuba: contemporary film and the legacy of revolution by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .C8 C495 2017ISBN: 9781784538149Contemporary Cuba is opening up to the rest of the world. Its colonial past and the Communist revolution have left a lasting imprint on society, yet there is a tangible sense of rapid change which is reflected in the island's national cinema. New screen technologies and digital distribution media have supported the efficacy and global reach of Cuban filmmakers whose work, somewhat in lieu of adequate distribution and traditional screening facilities in Cuba itself, is often disseminated via 'flash' (USB memory sticks). Channelling an energetic DIY attitude through grassroots movements and ad-hoc resourcefulness, the new filmmakers of Cuba have inspired the editors of this book to embrace their contagious enthusiasm through essays on authentic Cuban cinema. Whilst the book provides a comprehensive overview of the history behind current practices, it also moves beyond this to examine key case studies as well as 'snapshots' of individuals working within the industry today. ...
Cuban cinema by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .C8 C48 2004ISBN: 9780816634248The earliest films made in Cuba--newsreel footage of the Cuban-Spanish-American War--date from the end of the nineteenth century, but Cuba cannot be said to have had an indigenous film industry before the revolution of 1959. The melodramas, musicals, and comedies made until then reflected Hollywood's--and the United States's--cultural domination of the island, but the revolution precipitated urgent debates about the role of cinema in a socialist country and the kinds of films best suited to the needs of the people and their rulers. Among the feature films, documentaries, and short subjects made in accordance with revolutionary principles are celebrated works by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Humberto Solás, and other filmmakers who have had a profound influence on both Latin American and world cinema. Michael Chanan provides a comprehensive, authoritative, and absorbing account of Cuban cinema both before and after the revolution, deftly setting individual films and filmmakers within the larger framework of Cuba's social, political, and cultural history. ...
Selected book titles
Cuban cinema after the Cold War: a critical analysis of selected films by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .C8 G28 2015ISBN: 9780786499106The changes Cuba experienced following the collapse of the Soviet Union compelled Cuban filmmakers to rethink the values developed after the 1959 Castro revolution. Long-forgotten genres re-emerged, established auteurs incorporated new aesthetics into their films and an influx of foreign capital led to the repackaging of revolutionary ideology into more visually attractive narratives.
On location in Cuba: street filmaking [sic] during times of transition by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .C8 S86 2009ISBN: 9780807859407The 1990s were a time of dramatic transformation for Cuba. With the collapse of its Cold War relationship with the Soviet Union, the island nation plummeted into an era of scarcity and uncertainty known as the Special Period, a time from which it emerged only slowly in the new century. On Location in Cuba views these pivotal decades through the lens of cinema. Ann Marie Stock conducted hundreds of interviews and conversations in Cuba to examine individual artists' lives and creative output--including film, video, and audiovisual art. ...
Screening Cuba: film criticism as political performance during the Cold War by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780252077487Hector Amaya advances into new territory in Latin American and U.S. cinema studies in this innovative analysis of the differing critical receptions of Cuban film in Cuba and the United States during the Cold War. Synthesizing film reviews, magazine articles, and other primary documents, Screening Cuba compares Cuban and U.S. reactions to four Cuban films: Memories of Underdevelopment, Lucia, One Way or Another, and Portrait of Teresa. In examining cultural production through the lens of the Cold War, Amaya reveals how contrasting interpretations of Cuban and U.S. critics are the result of the political cultures in which they operated. ...
Finding journal articles
Although our collection does not include a journal title that looks exclusively at Cuban cinema, you can use Film & Television Literature Index to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.
Film & television literature index by Call Number: Electronic resourceUse this index to find articles about Cuban cinema.
HAPI online by Call Number: Electronic resourceHAPI is a source for worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States, with coverage from 1970 to the present.
Screen studies collection by Call Number: Electronic resourceA comprehensive survey of current publications related to film scholarship alongside detailed filmographies. This collection includes the FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database and the detailed and complementary filmographies created by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the British Film Institute.
The web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Selected movie titles
Find more Cuban film titles in the library's online catalog.
Chico & Rita by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #15512ISBN: 1422921700Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and desire unite them as they chase their dreams and each other from Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas. With an original soundtrack by legendary Cuban pianist and five-time Grammy-winning composer Bebo Valdés, Chico & Rita captures a defining moment in the evolution of history and jazz.
Cuba libre by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #8035After being evicted from their cultural center, a group of squatters enter the Cuban Embassy in Madrid at the same time that Fidel Castro announces the first free elections. This creates unwanted attention for the squatters who find themselves the target of the police and a beautiful reporter who will stop at nothing to get the exclusive of the year.
El otro Francisco by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #15838A revisionist version of the novel by Anselmo Suárez y Romero about the impossible love between two slaves persecuted and tortured by their master, the film seeks to criticize the romantic and idealistic (albeit humanistically motivated) literary vision of the bourgeois author concerning slavery, confronting, step by step, the reality of the economic, social and political framework of colonial society, striving to show an authentic picture of slavery and class struggle.
La anunciación by Call Number: Streaming videoAmalia is an old woman who is a medium and who has recently widowed. She lives with her 10-year-old grandson, Cristóbal, and her youngest son, Mayito. Amalia brings together the divided family to read the moral wills of her recently deceased husband, Octavio.
La edad de la peseta = The silly age by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #15847In 1950's Havana, before the Revolution, Samuel is brought to Havana by his mother Alicia, a newly divorced woman, to live with her long-ignored mother Violeta. At first, Violeta teases and commands Samuel. She tries to intimidate him a little and threatens him with being sent away to school. But, rather suddenly he becomes Violeta's protégé. She's a portrait photographer and Samuel becomes her assistant. Gradually a nice relationship between Violeta and Samuel develops. Alicia meets Ramon, the plump and proper owner of a shoe store. Alicia goes to work at Ramon's shop, and eventually they marry. Meanwhile, Samuel receives some advanced kissing lessons. Samuel meets a beautiful woman delivering photo portraits. She is Violeta's most beautiful model, a movie star named film star Nuria. She turns out to be the girlfriend of one of the most famous heroes of the Cuban Revolution.
Internet resource(s)
- Asociación Cubana del Audiovisual (ACAV) and Film BoardThe Asociación Cubana del Audiovisual (ACAV) is an organization dedicated to the development of the independent film industry in the Cuba.
- Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY)... HFFNY continues to uphold the reputation for which it is known: enriching and expanding the vision of Cuban and Latino culture in the United States. ...
Keeping up with the journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for a national or regional cinema? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's you can download and read the articles you want.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's now available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.