Discoveries from Cuba World Cinema

The struggle of a man and animals against predators.

Activities of the transit authority and plan for reeducation of those punished for traffic offenses.

It is a hot night in Cuba. Elizabeth de Victória, aged 22, is about to make her long-awaited debut on the stage of the biggest drag show in the entire province of Artemisa. But before she gives a live performance, she must confront all the difficulties preceding the show. A ruthless clock counts the minutes to the start of the show and the preparations of other drag queens reveal all the shortcomings of the debutant. Comments about the unknown girl can be heard whispered around the dressing room. The atmosphere is becoming denser as the successive drag queens finish their performances and everyone is awaiting the visiting debutant.

Contemporary Cuban animation by Ivette Ávila.

Explores the rich, but forgotten, history of the Chinese in Cuba through the stories of four elders: Pedro, Mauro, Caridad, and Georgina—and their descendants. Barrio Chino, Havana’s once-vibrant Chinatown, is one of the oldest and largest in Latin America, now turning to dust along with its history.

Daniela is missing some sounds. Going deaf is one of her biggest fears. For a moment, reality takes the form of one of her nightmares.

One of the first documentaries of its kind, Not Because Fidel Castro Says So is a candid look at the situation for Cuban LGBTQ people. It examines the relationship of gays to the Cuban revolution and the Spanish Catholic Church as the root of homophobic attitudes.

A beautifully constructed love letter transforming a 1993 interview conducted by the Cuban filmmaker with her grandmother, into a celebration of not only her grandmother’s legacy but also a tribute to the larger history, struggle and tenacity of Black Cubans and Black Cuban women in particular.

A short 1962 black & white gem by Cuban director Humberto Solás, with Hector Veita, about creating the Escuelas Nacionales de Arte (National Schools of Art) during the euphoric period after the victory of the Cuban Revolution. These art schools are the most outstanding architectural achievement of the Cuban Revolution. But for many years, and up to recently, stood abandoned, consumed by the jungle, outside the western suburbs of Havana. For more about the story of the schools see revolutionofforms.com. Solás' remarkable, taut, little film nevertheless captures the spirit of utopian optimism that characterized the early years of the Revolution.

An intimate and revealing autoethnographic documentary about uprootedness, motherhood, love of film, friendship and freedom. Two filmmakers who have been best friends since childhood, both part of the Cuban diaspora, share their intimate and emotional journey while they try to find themselves and each other in a foreign land.

Prenatal care and the advice for pregnant woman to enable a safe and healthy birth.

Linda and Antonio are seven years old and live in Havana. They are best friends. But their time together is limited, because Linda is leaving Cuba.

Documentary reflecting upon the life and legacy of Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

The former prison for adolescents is converted into a "rehabilitation center" by the nascent Revolution.

Animated short film from Elpidio Valdés' series. Coronel Elpidio Valdés has to cross the Trocha de Júcaro a Morón, a really difficult militar action.

Nicanor O’Donnell, a visual artist, successfully opens his exhibition “With a Dark and Mourning Soul.” However, the next day he is urgently called to the gallery because troubling mishaps are occurring. Nicanor must cooperate with the authorities and decide the ultimate fate of his art.

Guided by a book by Néstor Almendros that he acquired clandestinely in Havana in the 1980s, Ricardo Vega filmed in 8 mm and edited the images in Paris three decades later.

The voices of prominent historians join the memories of Haitians and their descendants in Cuba to understand a chapter of the complex economic and social history of the Caribbean : the presence in the Island of Cuba of thousands of West Indian laborers, especially from Haiti. That army of black workers who fertilized with their sweat the fields of Cuba from the beginning of the twentieth century. For many, it was a great bargain of cheap labor. For others, the realization of the dream of every immigrant: make money and return home .

On the day of The Rolling Stones' concert in Havana, Molina, a former Marxism teacher and fan of the band, must choose between Margarita, an old love who returns, and Mick Jagger.

Condemns racial discrimination in Cuba from the colonial era until the Triumph of the Revolution.

The arrival at the port of Cienfuegos of a ship with cargo that has no recipient exposes some of the problems faced there, which reflect the national reality.

How do we decide where is home? Feeling increasingly isolated in her adopted homeland, accomplished documentarian Dai Sil Kim-Gibson travels to Cuba to unearth stories from a relatively unknown group in the Asian diaspora. On the island, she meets Martha, a woman of Korean descent who identifies herself as Cuban. Like many of her contemporary countrymen and women, Martha possesses family ties that span multiple nations, cultures and politics. Her story inspires Kim-Gibson to travel to Miami to meet Martha's émigré sister and the rest of their mulitcultural family, in a journey that reveals how very different worldviews can co-exist in one family separated by place and ideology.

Filmmaker Carolina Valencia documents her effort to become a witch doctor in the Santaria tradition as well as her struggles as a transgender person.

This popular science film from the Popular Encyclopedia series consists of three stories: 1 – How a Newspaper Is Born (a popular account of the various stages of newspaper development and printing); 2 – "Reptiles" (about the different classes of reptiles and their characteristics); 3 – "Rubén Martínez Villena" (a biography of the poet and revolutionary Rubén Martínez Villena).

Idania and Luis receive the news that their son has murdered another boy while on guard duty in the unit where he is doing his military service. The parents’ relationship will be in crisis, based on each one’s vision of their child.

A malignant force analyzes the people living in a house. They don't seem to notice their fate, except for and old man who is sure that finishing his masterpiece will save everyone from the inevitable.

Strange things are afoot at the opera as Angel, a countertenor, and his twin brother prepare for an audition that will change their lives.

Kafe Negro tells the story of migrations around a small grain that became the second most important raw material on the global market. This film tells the story of the waves of migration of Haitian workers who, over time, profoundly transformed the culture and demography of Cuba and developed coffee growing on the island.

The forest is not merely a setting: it is a mirror of the soul. In this short film, the pursuit has no clear destination—it becomes a visual metaphor for inner struggle. Every shadow, every branch, every step through the grass reflects a desperate attempt to escape from what we are and refuse to face.

A funny film about DOGS—an analysis of the wide range of treatments, feelings, reactions, opinions, etc., Cubans have towards "man's best friend".

Humorous critique of the non-compliance with rules and regulations in a communal building complex, as seen through the conflicts between neighbours.

Magyelis, a girl boxer from Havana, trains rigorously to perfect her skills in the ring. As she approaches her 15th birthday celebration, she struggles to balance identities and expectations, facing the pressures of an environment that demands both strength and grace.

The bittersweet poignancy of a fleeting present moment fading into memory, and the intent to capture it all. Ethereal and ephemeral, my eternal space.

Opinions of workers of the textile industry on the theses of the XIII Labor Congress of the CTC.

A short film by Pablo Useros.

From the brief but intense trip to Havana, a Super 8 color film. Thrown like a drawing, a bottle on the seashore. Loose syllables, a small event waiting to happen, an announcement of imminent return, a glass bead necklace.

A young Cuban couple gets lost, and searching for a place to stay the night, enters the home of M. Wong and Madame Tsu, who have sinister plans for them.

There are public places in Cuba where the gay community meets secretly. The link between the director and these places provokes conflicts that force him to return to the “potajeras”. In this journey, the director's feelings of love and hate for these places are intertwined.

Co-director and protagonist Abraham Jiménez, one of the most important voices of Cuban independent journalism, is expecting a baby with his wife, producer/co-director Claudia Calviño. As they become more and more exhausted and depressed from the constant harassment of the Cuban government, the young family embarks on a journey off the island and become political exiles in Spain. A heartfelt, intimate look at daily life in Cuba and the measures taken by one family to protect their freedom.

The conflicts of female boxers in Cuba are addressed. The film tells the life stories of members of the women's boxing team, who has to face many obstacles until the official practice of that sport was finally autorized in Cuba, in December 2022.

They're my parents' friends. Their last farewell was in Minsk, 1984. They returned to Cuba after finishing the career of Marxist-Leninist philosophy. They came with the doubts of Perestroika, with the Soviet stories: they foresaw a future that was not. Now that they can meet again, they wonder what is the thread that the sister still has?

The "most cultured country in the world", the result of the "universalization of education", seen as an anthropological horror story. One of the cult classics of independent Cuban cinema of the 2000s.

This film applies the six principles for composition delineated in ‘Opinions on Painting by the Monk of the Green Pumpkin’, written by the eighteenth-century Chinese painter Shih-T’ao as referenced in Raúl Ruíz’s essay For a Shamanic Cinema (for example, ‘draw attention to a scene emerging from a static background’ or ‘add scattered dynamism to immobility’). The film is composed of scenes with non-actors, and texts by R.D.Laing and Lucy Lippard. Filmed and recorded in Habana, Cuba; Los Angeles; Devil's Punch Bowl; Ryan Mountain; Jurupa Hills, Pasadena and Idyllwild, California.

A surrealist dolly shot. The thesis of the film seems summarized in which the character played by Frank Gonzalez (the fictional director of the film within the film) confesses to end his interviewer: "This film wants the viewer to reflect on the deceptive appearances can be."

Violence disguises itself as love, and a romantic relationship becomes silent and systematic torture. A moving testimony in the voice of its victim.

Two sisters, Eliana 31 and Alejandra 33, meet each other after 3 years of living apart, to write and perform a play based in their reflections and point of views of their country Panama, the invasion and the lack of feminist representation in political issues in the last 30 years of democracy.

In a remote corner of Santiago de Cuba, a family of Haitian origin celebrates the goddess Erzulie in prayer and dance. The family shares the pain resulting from the tragic history of Haitian migrants who work in the Cuban sugar industry.

Through testimonies and the trial of mercenaries from the Angolan War, the history and struggles of the Angolan people are revealed, from the so-called "Portuguese discoveries" to the Second War of Liberation.

A 96-year-old begins to talk about her spirituality, her view of life, and her perspective on what lies ahead. The granddaughter gently weaves moments and memories together.

In a satirical tone, multiple unexpected actions during a ball game and the reactions of the public are captured. In search of the unusual, the documentary ventures outside the field of this sport.

The dark forest is the record of a long journey that connects two funerary rituals in Cuba: the state burial to say goodbye to the fallen in the Angolan war and a spiritist rite to welcome the spirits of the past that return to the world of the living. These events, captured by Cuban amateur documentaries filmed in 1987, intertwine to form the backbone of this film whose main reflections revolve around loss and oblivion.

Pedro is a loving husband and a dedicated librarian, but he also is a serial killer with a thirst for blood so huge and irrepressible that will endanger the illusion of his life.