Film and History in Revolutionary Cuba by John Mraz

Film and History in Revolutionary Cuba by John Mraz

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.

"An outstanding contribution to scholarship on Cuban cinemaFilm and History in Revolutionary Cuba insists upon a deeply contextualized approach to understanding a corpus of highly original and internationally recognized historical films that were produced by the Cuban Film Institute (Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, ICAIC) during the period 1968 to 1976. Mraz succeeds beautifully in recuperating the cultural effervescence of the era and deepens our appreciation for the culture of the Cuban Revolution." — Philip Kaisary, author of From Havana to Hollywood: Slave Resistance in the Cinematic Imaginary

John Mraz is a Research Professor of the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. He is the author of History and Modern Media: A Personal Journey and Photographing the Mexican Revolution: Commitments, Testimonies, Icons.