Eclipse Series 50: Sara Gómez’s Revolutionary Cuba

[Finch]

A true cinematic revolutionary who used the camera as her tool in the fight against oppression in all forms, the Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez brought the stories of ordinary Cubans to the screen with a bracing immediacy and insight. Drawing on her background in ethnography, Gómez became her country’s first woman director, exploring issues of class, race, labor, women’s health, and Afro-Cuban culture in a string of intimate, illuminating shorts that reveal the complex realities of life in a postrevolutionary society rocked by seismic change. Though she directed only one feature—the formally innovative landmark of radical feminist cinema One Way or Another—before her death from an asthma attack at age thirty-one, Gómez left behind a vital legacy as a pioneer whose inquisitive work continues to offer lessons in what an engaged anticolonial cinema can be.

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Films In This Set
One Way or Another
One Way or Another 1977
The only feature from the radical Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez—completed by her collaborators after her untimely death—is an extraordinary portrait of postrevolution Cuba. Blending invaluable documentary footage with a loose narrative about the budding cross-class relationship between an outspoken schoolteacher (Yolanda Cuéllar) and a young mixed-race factory worker (Mario Balmaseda) facing a moral crisis, One Way or Another depicts revolution as an ongoing process that takes place at the level of community—among friends, lovers, coworkers, teachers, students, and parents, all of whom must work together to negotiate a new social order. Above all, Gómez offers a trenchant intersectional critique of the lingering sexism and machismo that, she argues, must be cleared away in order to create a truly just society.

One Way or Another was restored in 2K resolution by Arsenal in collaboration with ICAIC at ARRI in Munich and Berlin.

I’ll Go to Santiago
I’ll Go to Santiago 1964
In this early work, named for a line in a poem by Federico García Lorca, Sara Gómez employs the form of the ethnographic documentary both incisively and playfully, creating a joyous portrait of the Cuban port city of Santiago de Cuba. Animated by music and movement, the film offers both a vivid snapshot of everyday life and a cogent analysis of the complexities of Afro-Cuban identity, history, and culture.

I’ll Go to Santiago was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.



Excursion to Vueltabajo
Excursion to Vueltabajo 1965
Sara Gómez looks at the changes wrought by the Cuban Revolution through its impact on tobacco production, one of the country’s foremost industries. Over the course of this short documentary, she speaks with workers about the effects of new agricultural technologies and systems, while evoking the landscapes and culture connected with the crop.

Excursion to Vueltabajo was restored in 2K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

Guanabacoa: Chronicle of My Family
Guanabacoa: Chronicle of My Family 1966
Director Sara Gómez journeys back to her hometown of Guanabacoa to explore her family history in this deeply personal look at the experiences of a Black, middle-class family in Cuba both before and after the revolution. Elegantly weaving together musical performances, text, and intimate records of family members, Gómez reveals the religious, cultural, and economic diversity within Afro-Cuban life.

Guanabacoa: Chronicle of My Family was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

And . . . We’ve Got Sabor
And . . . We’ve Got Sabor 1967
Legendary rumba musician Alberto Zayas serves as a guide for this vibrant journey through Cuban musical history and culture. Introducing an array of popular musical genres and instruments, and featuring thrilling performances, the film examines what gives Cuban music its unique sabor (flavor).

And . . . We’ve Got Sabor was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

On the Other Island
On the Other Island 1968
The first of three films Sara Gómez made about Cuba’s Isla de la Juventud (then known as Isla de Pinos) features interviews with residents of the youth reeducation centers established on the island by the revolutionary government. In conversations shaped by Gómez’s individual and intimate connections with her subjects, she captures their thoughts on a wide range of social issues, including the persistence of racial discrimination and religious faith in postrevolutionary Cuba.

On the Other Island was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

An Island for Miguel
An Island for Miguel 1968
Part of a trilogy of short films by Sara Gómez about Cuba’s Isla de Pinos, this documentary follows a poor, at-risk young man named Miguel who is sent there from Havana as part of a government reeducation program. The film, which explores Miguel’s family and social background, reflects Gómez’s deep interest in the development of the revolutionary “New Man” proposed by Ernesto “Che” Guevara, as she probes the gap between political discourse and human realities.

An Island for Miguel was restored in 2K resolution by the Department of Film & Media of Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, and Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata.

Treasure Island
Treasure Island 1969
This last of Sara Gómez’s three portraits of Isla de Pinos—a place that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and the site of Fidel Castro’s imprisonment by dictator Fulgencio Batista—examines the storied Cuban island’s rich history and culture, as well as its hosting of a radical experiment in creating a revolutionary communist society.

Treasure Island was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

Local Power, Popular Power
Local Power, Popular Power 1970
A local election in a Cuban town of sugar-mill workers offers a look at political organizing on a grassroots level. Illuminating the significance of this event for the individual and the collective, Sara Gómez speaks with residents and employees about issues around unequal food distribution, and about the qualities they look for in delegates to the local assembly—including whether a woman could do the job.

Local Power, Popular Power was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

A Documentary About Transit
A Documentary About Transit 1971
This short documentary examines the role of Cuba’s Traffic Department in solving issues of city planning. Statistics on the effects of traffic accidents, documentation of drivers discussing their cases, and footage of workers installing street signs are edited into a rapid and kinetic montage. Please note that the film is incomplete and cuts off abruptly.

A Documentary About Transit was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

On Sugar Workers’ Quarters
On Sugar Workers’ Quarters 1971
Director Sara Gómez offers a look at everyday life in the bateyes—the workers’ settlements surrounding sugarcane mills—told from the perspective of the inhabitants. Featuring the voices of workers from diverse ethnic backgrounds as well as formerly privileged overseers, the film tells the human story of Cuba’s principal prerevolutionary industry.

On Sugar Workers’ Quarters was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

My Contribution
My Contribution 1972
As in her feature One Way or Another, Sara Gómez examines the role of women in postrevolutionary Cuba, offering a trenchant critique of a society in which—despite utopian promises—gender inequality persists. Interviews with male and female workers and officials in the Camilo Cienfuegos sugar refinery and discussions among women intellectuals create a detailed and impassioned account of the ways in which the revolution has fallen short of its ideals.

My Contribution was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

Year One
Year One 1972
This short documentary spotlights postnatal childcare and assistance for new mothers in Cuba. Filled with tender images of infants, it celebrates the work of field nurses who visit new mothers to provide education and preventive care, and includes instruction on breastfeeding, weaning, vaccination, and developmental milestones during a child’s first year.

Year One was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

Prenatal Care
Prenatal Care 1972
Informed by director Sara Gómez’s own experiences with childbirth and motherhood, this short documentary offers guidance to pregnant women, highlighting the importance of education about maternal and prenatal health. Conversations between pregnant women and nurses or doctors, medical examinations, and a scene of childbirth are filmed with frankness and compassion.

Prenatal Care was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.

About Extra Hours and Volunteer Work
About Extra Hours and Volunteer Work 1973
Cuban textile workers offer their thoughts on the policy of unpaid overtime and volunteer work. Employing a potent mix of interviews and written texts, director Sara Gómez interrogates revolutionary ideas and policies, questioning the efficacy of the system and the problems it creates, especially for working-class women.

About Extra Hours and Volunteer Work was restored in 4K resolution by the Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project

INCLUDES
An essay by scholar Odette Casamayor-Cisneros

[domino harvey]

Not familiar with this director but what an intriguing release!

MSRP is only 60 too

[What A Disgrace]

Very excited for this, I also hope Criterion - or someone - does a Santiago Alvarez collection.

[Lowry_Sam]

A nice surprise! If only every month had one unexpted release that saves something worthwhile (hopefully) from comlete obscurity. I think maybe the Sugar Workers may have been on the channel, but otherwise I haven't heard of any of these.

[hearthesilence]

Presumably this has the same restoration of One Way or Another that screened at MoMA back in January 2022 (and I'm guessing the first physical release to have it). IIRC it was a great looking restoration, so hopefully the encoding follows through.

Fred Camper's capsule review (and FWIW the film was finished by Tomas Gutierrez Alea, director of Memories of Underdevelopment, after Gómez died during the editing process).