2009-2010 Documentary series

Tuesday, November 3  341 Eggers, 1:00-2:30pm

"A New Cultural Renaissance in Afro-Latin America: Afro-Cuban Women Directors: Raíces de mi Corazón, Directed by Gloria Rolando 51 minutes"

Presented by Kwame Dixon, Assistant Professor of African American Studies

Across the Americas there are new artistic forms and cultural productions, e.g., films that portray the history, the struggles, and the lives of black Latin Americans from a fresh angle. It is argued that these films reclaim lost or forgotten histories as well as present strong counter narratives to old forms of representation. Raíces de mi Corazón is an example of some of the new films that repositions our understanding of black Cuba.

This talk will examine the work(s) of Afro-Cuban director Gloria Rolando whose films serves to more firmly place Afro-Cubans within the national identity of Cuba by reclaiming important historical events and personalities. The film to be viewed and discussed is Raíces de mi Corazón (Roots of my Heart, 51 minutes, 2001).

Wednesday, March 10    341 Eggers, 3:30pm

"Habana: Arte nuevo de hacer ruinas"

Presented by Myrna Garcia-Calderón, Assistant Professor, Department of Language, Literature, and Linguistics

In the last years, Havana, capital of socialist Cuba, has become famous all over the world for the morbid charm of its flaking façades. Its beauty resides in the poetry of its ruins.  The ruins of Havana are far less poetic for the people who inhabit them. Houses frequently collapse causing fatalities. The decay of this city and its living quarters is a continual source of both danger and shame for its inhabitants. The film portrays five persons in Havana who reside in buildings at various states of decay.  They all try to escape from a life which risks to become ruined by the fact of inhabiting a ruin.

Habana – Arte Nuevo de Hacer Ruinas tells the stories of people who are waiting every day to be buried by the buildings they are living in. They suffer from living in ruins but nonetheless refuse to move out. Anywhere else but in Cuba, these buildings would have long ago been renovated, torn down, or turned into museums. Through this, the film presents the ambivalent admixture of magic and destruction. At the same time it captures the final moments of these buildings before they’re renovated – or simply collapse altogether.