February 5, 2013 : 3 CUBAN FILMS
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Films from the
4th TRAVELLING CARIBBEAN SHOWCASE OF FILMS
Spotlight on CUBA
February 5, 2013/ 7:30 pm / St. John School of the Arts, Cruz Bay
Join us for an insightful look into contemporary Cuba. Three filmmakers capture the stories of teachers, cigar-factory workers, and taxi-drivers from urban Havana to rural Baracoa – inspiring, controversial, and uniquely Cuba!
ADOLPHO : 45–min , fiction, directed by Sofie Delaage 2006
Poor Adolpho yearns for life beyond his broken-down taxi and plots a journey across the sea in this contemporary Cuban comedy of errors.
CON EL TOQUE DE LA CHAVETA: 28-min, documentary, directed by Pamela Sporn
In the cigar factories of Cuba, a unique tradition persists: ‘la lectura de tabaqueria’ . Every day, specially employed workers read out loud to the two or three-hundred tabaqueros as they sit rolling the country’s famous cigars. From classic novels to national politics and local baseball results, for centuries this daily tradition has been an education for the workers, or chavetas. But after years of listening, they are now knowledgeable and demanding, and the readers must be at their very best if they are to keep their discerning audience interested.
MAESTRA (THE TEACHER): 33-min, documentary, directed by Catherine Murphy, 2011
In 1961 Cuba 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old, over half were women. The Bay of Pigs invasion took place in Cuba impacting the both the women and the literacy campaign. The young women who went out to teach literacy in the rural communities across the island found themselves deeply transformed in the process. This documentary includes present day interviews with women who volunteered to teach their country to read in 1961 along with archival footage and still photos from the 60’s. Catherine Murphy has begun the recording of an oral history of one of contemporary Cuba’s greatest achievements.
Thanks to Elaine Ione Sprauve Public Library, home to the St. John Film Society film collection.