Eclipse Series 50: Sara Gómez's Revolutionary Cuba Blu-Ray

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.

INCLUDES
• The films: One Way or Another; I'll Go to Santiago; Excursion to Vueltabajo; Guanabacoa: Chronicle of My Family; And . . . We’ve Got Sabor; On the Other Island; An Island for Miguel; Treasure Island; Local Power, Popular Power; A Documentary About Transit; On Sugar Workers’ Quarters; My Contribution; Year One; Prenatal Care; and About Extra Hours and Volunteer Work
• PLUS: An essay by scholar Odette Casamayor-Cisneros

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER
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.

I’LL GO TO SANTIAGO
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.

EXCURSION TO VUELTABAJO
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.

GUANABACOA: CHRONICLE OF MY FAMILY
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.

AND . . . WE’VE GOT SABOR
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).

ON THE OTHER ISLAND
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.

AN ISLAND FOR MIGUEL
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.

TREASURE ISLAND
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.

LOCAL POWER, POPULAR POWER
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.

A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT TRANSIT
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.

ON SUGAR WORKERS’ QUARTERS
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.

MY CONTRIBUTION
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.

YEAR ONE
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.

PRENATAL CARE
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.

ABOUT EXTRA HOURS AND VOLUNTEER WORK
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.