Film and History in Revolutionary Cuba

An unparalleled in-depth study of Cuban revolutionary cinema. From 1968 to 1976, energized by a postrevolutionary cultural effervescence of which cinema was the prime expression, the Cuban Film Institute made a unique, concerted effort to produce history films and to reflect on the genre. The result was twofold—a number of formally experimental, historically informed, and internationally recognized movies along with an extended discussion among the institute's cineastes about the aesthetics and ideology of their works. In Film and History in Revolutionary Cuba, world-renowned historian of visual culture John Mraz approaches these films from a dual perspective. Mraz sheds light on the context of ebullition that marked cinema of the period while analyzing fictional works such as Memories of Underdevelopment, Lucía, The Other Francisco, and The Last Supper as representations of history in both their form and their content. Such films not only offer important, powerful explorations of the past but are also deeply embedded in the history of that moment.