‘I Am Cuba’ Being Presented As Part Of The Latin American Film Series At SDMA

I am Cuba, a Soviet propaganda film that was rediscovered and restored in the 1990s with the support of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, is being presented by the San Diego Museum of Art as part of their Latin Film Series.

Sometimes the story behind a film is so compelling that it becomes an integral part of the film itself as is the case with I Am Cuba.

From Wikipedia:

“A 1964 Soviet–Cuban film directed by Mikhail Kalatozov at Mosfilm. The film was not received well by either the Russian or Cuban public and was almost completely forgotten until it was re-discovered by filmmakers in the United States thirty years later. 

The acrobatic tracking shots and idiosyncratic mise en scene prompted Hollywood directors like Martin Scorsese to begin a campaign to restore the film in the early 1990s.

The film is shot in black and white, sometimes using infrared film obtained from the Soviet military to exaggerate contrast (making trees and sugar cane almost white, and skies very dark but still obviously sunny).

Most shots are in extreme wide-angle and the camera passes very close to its subjects, whilst still largely avoiding having those subjects ever look directly at the camera.”

The story is amazing and the film is something you have to see.

Presented as a part of the Latin American Film Series, a series of five films that bring to life characters, stories, issues, and themes portrayed or evoked in “Modern Masters from Latin America: The Pérez Simón Collection.”

We love that the San Diego Museum of Art keeps bringing such cool stuff to San Diego!

Grab your crew and check it out.

See you there!