| Wednesday,
October 26 at 7:00pm
Cinema
Tropical
Cinema
Tropical is the definitive source for Latin American film in
the United States. It is
a comprehensive and collaborative project between institutions,
organizations and individuals that work in the promotion of
Latin American cinema. The Cinema Tropical Series showcases
a recent Latin American film each month. In the past few years,
several Latin American countries have seen their filmmaking
industries show signs of recovery and growth, as new ground
in both the commercial and independent fronts is broken. This
series brings a selection of films from both tendencies, giving
Philadelphia
audiences a glimpse into the exciting revitalized cinema from
Latin America.
I
Am Cuba, The Siberian Mammoth
dir.
Vicente Ferraz, Brazil, 2004, BetaSP, 90 mins, color and b/w,
Spanish and Russian w/ English subtitles
Introduced
by Monika Wagenberg, co-founder of Cinema Tropical
and
Penn graduate
 The
first and only Cuban/Soviet co-production, Mikhail Kalotosov’s
1964 masterpiece I Am Cuba, was intended as a celebration
of Castro’s revolution, but was subsequently rejected by Cuban
and Soviet authorities upon its release and shelved for more
than 30 years until it was rediscovered and championed by directors
Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola in the 1990s. Through
a combination of breathtaking shots from the original film and
interviews with surviving Soviet and Cuban cast and crew members,
Ferraz investigates the motives behind the banning of the film.
The resulting documentary, I am Cuba, The Siberian Mammoth,
provides us with insights into the ideology of the Cold War
and the recent history of Cuba.
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