Cuba-Film Festival - June 22 - 24, 2007 - Amherst, MA

In conjunction with its 4th Summer Film Institute SOLIDARITY! DEFA and Latin America and the release of the new Cuban Masterworks Collection, the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is pleased to announce the Cuban-Film Festival 2007 in Amherst, MA.  We will screen a total of seven English subtitled films spanning five decades, all by renowned Cuban filmmakers and/or about Cuba.

The festival is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, with the exception of the Sunday screening of I am Cuba at the Amherst Cinema Arts Center, where admission will be charged.

Most of the screenings will be in Stirn Auditorium at Amherst College, with the exception of I am Cuba.

Cuba-Film Festival Schedule                                                                   June 22-24 2007

Friday 22 June:

8:00 pm -   The Twelve Chairs (Las doce sillas) Cuba, Tomas G. Alea, 1962, 90', b/w

By the director of Death of a Bureaucrat and the Oscar-nominated Strawberry and Chocalate, this significant example of socialist realist filmmaking is the Cuban version of an oft-retold Russian story, which was also filmed by Mel Brooks in 1970. On her deathbed, a wealthy woman reveals she hid her jewels in one of twelve identical chairs, newly confiscated by revolutionary authorities. The hunt for the chairs begins…
 

Saturday 23 June:

1:00 pm -   A Successful Man (Un hombre de exito) Cuba/Spain, Humberto Solas, 1986, 103', color

A chronicle of three decades leading up to the Cuban revolution, represented through the lives of two brothers separated by ideology and ambition. Solas' meticulous attention to detail illuminates this story of corruption versus innocence, which has been compared to The Godfather. A Successful Man was the first Cuban film considered for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Winner of the Grand Prize at the Havana Film Festival.

3:30 pm -   Cecilia Cuba/Spain, Humberto Solas, 1981, 127', color

In 1830s Cuba, a rich slave owner's son falls for a proud and beautiful mulatto girl, Cecilia (Daisy Granados). While revolution simmers on the island, his parents force him to marry a woman of his own class. An intimate and stark portrayal of colonial relations, Cecilia  is a loose adaptation of Cuba’s best-known historic novel. The film’s modification of the novel caused a scandal, making this the most controversial release in Cuban film history. Nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

8:00 pm -   The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin (Las aventuras de Juan Quinquin) Cuba, Julio Garcia Espinosa, 1967, 104', b/w

Farmer Juan Quin Quin survives in pre-revolutionary Cuba by his wits – as an altar boy, circus performer, bullfighter, coffee planter and revolutionary. The influential concepts outlined by Espinosa in his manifesto, "For an Imperfect Cinema," found their first paradigmatic expression in this film. It is an anarchic comedy and homage to classic film genres and styles.

Sunday 24 June:

11:00 am - Amada Cuba, Humberto Solas, 1982, 105', color

Havana 1914 - the turmoil surrounding WWI engulfs the daughter of a recently deceased, wealthy slave trader. She falls in love with her cousin, an idealistic journalist, but is tied to her unfaithful husband and bourgeois values. For this role, leading actress Eslinda Nunez (Lucia, 1968) won the Audience's Acting Award at the 10^th International Ibero-American Festival in Huelva, Spain.

2:00 pm -   I am Cuba (Soy Cuba) USSR/Cuba, Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964, 141', b/w

Newly restored and subtitled 35m print - Special Screening at the Amherst Cinema Center!

Russian director Kalatozov (The Cranes are Flying) collaborated with poet Yevgeni Yevtuschenko and writer Enrique Pineda Barnet to create this story about the conditions leading to the 1959 Cuban revolution. A classic, this film is known for its transcendent artistry, in particular the bold, experimental camera work of Alexsandr Kalzaty and characterizations in the style of Eisenstein.

7:30 pm -   I am Cuba - the Siberian Mammoth (Soy Cuba, O Mamute Siberiano) Brazil, Vincente Ferraz, 2005, 90', color

A documentary which chronicles the making of Kalatozov's I Am Cuba. Interviews with surviving Soviet and Cuban cast and crew members explore why the film was rejected in both the Soviet Union and Cuba at the time of its release, as well as its re-discovery by US filmmakers in the 1990s. Interspersed with breathtaking shots from the original, this film provides a fascinating look at Cold War relations in action!

The Cuba-Film Festival and East German Summer Film Institute on SOLIDARITY! DEFA and Latin America are made possible with the help of the DEFA Foundation, PROGRESS Film-Verleih, the Max Kade Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Department of German Studies at Amherst College, the Amherst Cinema Arts Center, the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts, and German and Scandinavian Studies & Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Please contact filmtour@german.umass.edu for more details.

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