The Making of Soy Cuba

Anyone fascinated by the very excellent Soy Cuba, or indeed by cinema as a whole, would find Vicente Perrez 2004 documentary about the making of 'Soy Cuba’, the oddly named I Am Cuba: The Siberian Mammoth, well worth seeking out. It can be hard to find, but, fortunately for afficionados, it is available to watch online at the IDFA (Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival) website. That site is a little idiosyncratic, but a search under ‘I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth | IDF’ should put you in the right place (more hit and miss:  even more hit and miss: ). It’’s well worth persisting - Perrez documentary covers far more than just the making of ‘Soy Cuba’, though it does that in satisfying detail - it sketches a history of Cuban cinema (and beyond), the technical aspects of making the film, discusses the terrible reception Soy Cuba got when screened in ’64, its rediscovery and critical re-appraisal, and all usually through the eyes of those who spent fourteen months or more making Soy Cuba back in 1962. Terrific.

Stephen Hopkins

Audience Member

Remaining films in our Cuban strand: Return to Ithaca and A Wedding in Havana.

Day 1, Year 15

Dateline: 15:30 hours 24 February 2017, The Courtyard, Hereford

A beautiful day and already we are four films in, Borderlines is rolling. 

The voting boxes are out, the post-its poised waiting for your input and feedback. 

 

Soy Cuba & Denial plus Alone in Berlin launch a radical, visually compelling and engaged programme which will now play in venues up and down the Marches. Old friends and acquaintances are sat in the dark relishing the return of a fortnight of movie going, new friends are already discovering the welcome and engagement this winter festival brings. In a season when we all long for Spring, the snowdrops have lit the green fuse, the birds are starting to sing and Borderlines is bringing excitement and entertainment to the rural year. 

 

It's great to be back.

Matthew Evans, one of the two official Borderlines photographers