Cuba Now and Then 2016

Iberoamerican Images and the Vancouver International Film Centre are pleased to present: Cuba Now & Then from July 22 – 25, 2016 at Vancity Theatre.

Cuba Now & Then is series of six films celebrates the most outstanding and innovative films made in Cuba after the Revolution, allowing Vancouver audiences to discover and share their love of Cuban cinema.

In a weekend program, this series will present films from acclaimed Cuban filmmakers Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Humberto Solás, as well as new era’s directors Lester Hamlet, Ernesto Daranas and Fabián Suárez. Cuba Now & Then includes Mikhail Kalatozov’s master piece Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba)”One of the most deliriously beautiful films ever made.” according to Manohla Dargis, LA Weekly.

Omara: Cuba.

Directed by Lester Hamlet

Friday July 22 06:45 pm

Vancity Theatre, Vancouver.

• This moving documentary about the life and career of Omara Portuondo, known as the Diva of Buena Vista Social Club, features touching recollections by personalities of Cuban culture, including Eusebio Leal, Pablo Milanés, Chucho Valdés, José María Vitier, Rodulfo Vaillant, Amaury Pérez, Rosa Fornés, Luis Carbonell, Fernando Pérez, and Santiago Alfonso.

Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba).

Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov

Friday July 22 09:00 pm

Sunday July 24 03:30 pm

Vancity Theatre, Vancouver.

• “They’re going to be carrying ravished film students out of the theaters on stretchers,” wrote Terrence Rafferty in the New Yorker when this astonishing Soviet-made portrait of Castro’s Cuba was rediscovered in the mid 1990s. Featuring some of the jaw-dropping camerawork ever filmed (and decades before the invention of the Steadicam), the movie is a euphoric celebration of Cuba, the Revolution, and (most potently) revolutionary cinema.

Lucia

Directed by Humberto Solas

Saturday July 23 04:00 pm

Vancity Theatre, Vancouver.

• Three tales about three women called Lucía. One takes place during the independence war against Spain, the second during the Machado dictatorship, and the third one is after Castro’s revolution. Considered among Cuban critics as one of the great achievements of Cuban cinema. 

Conducta (Behaviour)

Directed by Ernesto Daranas

Saturday July 23 07:00 pm

Vancity Theatre, Vancouver.

• The story of Chala, the kid who supports his alcoholic and drug-addicted mother by breeding pigeons and training fighting dogs; who is loved and understood by his old teacher but is sent to a school for children with behavioral problems when the teacher falls ill and is temporarily replaced by an inexperienced young teacher, transcends the anecdotal account to give the viewers truths that some people prefer not to see: the intolerance and unconditional adherence to formalities and bureaucratic rule; the futility of educating within a bell jar and the crime of refusing to alleviate wrongdoings on the pretext that it is not possible to eradicate them entirely.

Memorias del subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment)

Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Aleas

Sunday July 24 06:30 pm

Vancity Theatre, Vancouver.

• A middle-class intellectual who stayed in Cuba after the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 faces a new world he does not seem to grasp. Featuring solid dramaturgy and outstanding acting, it is the most acclaimed Cuban film by national and international critics and was selected among the best 2000 films of all times by the International Federation of Film-Clubs. Based on Edmundo Desnoes’s award-winning novel.

Caballos (Horses)

Directed by : Fabián Suárez

Sunday July 24 08:30 pm

Vancity Theatre, Vancouver.

• Caballos is the story of a young photographer named Robi who finds himself caught between the deep sense of loyalty he has for an older male lover and the desire he feels for an enchanting female singer he meets at a bar, only days before she leaves to Paris. he film is in part inspired by the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe – who shot the iconic cover photo for Patti Smith’s 1975 album titled “Horses”. Whilst drawing fictionally on those characters, Suarez made his own statement with unique characters, composing a poetic and metaphoric reflection on the nature of horses.Shot in black-and-white, it is visually inspired by Mapplethorpe’s photos as well as Suárez’s primary cinematic influence, Memorias de subdesarrollo.