alr

I am Cuba
(Yo Soy Cuba)

Screening on Film
Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.
USSR, 1964, 35mm, black & white, 141 min.
Multilingual with subtitles.
Print source: HFA

Reminiscent of the city symphonies of the 1920s and inspired by Eisenstein’s unfinished film ode to Mexico (Que Viva Mexico!), Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba is a loving portrait of Mother Cuba by Mother Russia that juxtaposes the harsh realities of life during the Batista era with the perceived triumphs of the then-recent Castro revolution. Composed in four episodes, the film crisscrosses the country from urban slums to lush countryside, embellishing its predictable messages with Sergei Urusevsky’s striking widescreen black-and-white cinematography and an equally emphatic Afro-Cuban score. The result is an engaging time capsule of the first flush of life after the revolution, which marks the reemergence of a potent new form of radical film practice born of that earlier revolution in Russia.

Part of film series

Read more

Treasures from the Harvard Film Archive: E–I

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

The Reincarnations of Delphine Seyrig

Read more

Ben Rivers, Back to the Land

Read more

Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque

Read more

Make Way for Tomorrow. Carson Lund’s Eephus

Read more

Jessica Sarah Rinland’s Collective Monologue

Read more

David Lynch, New Dimensions

Read more

Museum Hours: Mati Diop’s Dahomey

Read more

Albert Serra, or Cinematic Time Regained

Read more

Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy