#cuban films

[a-pint-of-j-and-b]

De Cierta Manera (One Way or Another) | 1974 | Sara Gómez | Cuba

De Cierta Manera is a film created by legendary Black Cuban female filmmaker Sara Gómez. It mixes documentary-style footage with a fictional story centered around the Las Yaguas slums in Havana where the majority of the population is made up of Black people, Mulatos, and poor Whites. It demonstrates how the changing of material conditions, like in developing the neighbourhood, doesn't immediately change the behaviours and attitudes of a given population.

The fictional aspect of the story focuses on Yolanda a white school teacher with communist ideals who has become employed at a school in Las Yaguas, and her Mulato boyfriend Mario who is a resident of Las Yaguas; and whose interest lays more in his gender, ethnic/racial origins, and neighbourhood loyalties rather than in the working class solidarity pushed by the new revolutionary Cuba.

Their relationship is indicative of social struggles in Cuban society. This includes the machismo of Mario with its origins in western European Spanish society, but also the patriarchal attitudes that have been preserved in the Afro-Cuban fraternity, Abakuá, which he is part of. It also includes the racist attitudes still harbored by Yolanda towards Mario and her Afro-Cuban pupils, despite her apparent revolutionary convictions. Portraying the idea that for the Cuban Revolution to persevere, prejudice; whether racist, sexist, or class based must also be tackled.

[fantastictyphoonpeanut]

Ana - a pack of Polos are now 60 pence! ...Well you can get a 5-pack for £1.50. Oh! thanks Ana - bargain!!

[clarabowlover]

Ana de Armas - As Paloma In

No Time To Die (2021)

[matyas-ss]

Soy Cuba (1962)

Directed by: Mikhail Kalatozov

Cinematography by: Sergey Urusevsky

[fibula-rasa]

Black Film Archive: “28 Films for the 28 Days of Black History Month”

Pictured L to R: Cosmic Slop (1994), De cierta manera (1974), Cracks (1975), The Magnificent Major (1974), A Day in the Life of Willie Faust, or Death on the Installment Plan (1972), The Case of the Elevator Duck (1974), and Cornbread, Earl, and Me (!975)

The Black Film Archive is an online archival project dedicated to presenting 100 years of Black cinema in all its profound cultural and historical context. In celebration of Black History Month ‘25, Maya S. Cade, the archive’s creator, has curated an excellent list of 28 short and feature films. 

The curation of this “28 for 28” series is centered on “visions of resistance, childlike wonder, and unending imagination.” And, as I’ve been watching through the list, the selection of films definitely embodies the theme. Outstanding work! 

I have to admit that I was instantly intrigued by this series because it’s rare that I come across a Black-cinema-themed list mostly full of movies I haven’t seen—or never even heard of!

Pictured above are the films I’ve seen so far—they are all worth watching. You can find more information on each film on the BFA site. (I don’t want to be redundant.) 

As usual on here, feel free to ask if you need any specific trigger or content warnings for any movies I recommend and I’ll try to accommodate.

[celluloidrainbow]

FRESA Y CHOCOLATE (1993) dir. Juan Carlos Tabío & Tomás Gutiérrez Alea Diego and David could not be more different: one gay, the other straight, one a fierce communist, the other a fierce individualist, one suspicious, the other accepting. As they discuss politics and personal expression in 1979 Cuba, a genuine friendship develops between the two. (link in title)

[ayamebird]

昨日の夜見た夢にぴーすけが出てきました

ご飯は食べてくれなかったけど手の中に収まってなでなでさせてくれて

七夕に逢いに来てくれたのかな、と幸せな朝でした

[gael-garcia]

An Oppressed People Is Always Right (1974) by Nils Vest. Made in collaboration with the Palestine Cinema Institute

[illustratus]

“Toro? Sounds like a load of bull.”

Octopussy (1983)

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal in Dreaming of Julia / Cuban Blood (2003, dir. Juan Gerard)

[side note: this film was initially released in a widescreen format. Indeed, I HAVE a digital copy in widescreen format, but with subtitles burned in so no use for giffing. Every other copy I can find on DVD or digital format (it had a lot of releases under different titles) is in this cropped aspect ratio instead, so this is the one you're getting. It does look better in widescreen, though]

Gifs are all 540px wide so you can click to see larger.

[other gael filmography gifsets]

[fantastictyphoonpeanut]

... dapple... (FTP)

[kosmicpowers]

Everyone be quiet I'm doing Fidel x Che love confession rp.

[a-pint-of-j-and-b]

I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba/Я - Куба) | Mikhail Kalatozov | 1964 | USSR

[ourlittlesister2015]

Una Isla para Miguel (1968), dir. Sara Gómez

"These vagrants, these second-class citizens, find their way back to the nation thanks to their decisive, militant action." Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, translated by Richard Philcox

"They were rebels without a cause, our goal as militants was to give them a cause." Mario Monzón, translated by me

[misspeppermint2003]

Ed from Three Flavours Cornetto's Shaun of the Dead (United Kingdom)

Daniel "Danny" Butterman from Three Flavours Cornetto's Hot Fuzz (United Kingdom)

Andrew "Andy" Knightley from Three Flavours Cornetto's The World's End (United Kingdom)

Clive Gollings from Paul (United Kingdom/United States of America)

Bruce Garrett from Cuban Fury (United Kingdom)

[bruisefender]

Tumblr needs more Eduardo Muñoz Bachs