Fight the Power: Cinematic Tales of Resistance
Both a landmark of radical political cinema and one of the most visually ravishing films ever made, this legendary hymn to revolution shimmers across the screen like a fever dream of rebellion. The result of an extraordinarily ambitious collaboration between the Soviet and Cuban film industries, director Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba unfolds in four explosive vignettes that capture Cuban life on the brink of transformation, as crushing economic exploitation and inequality give way to a working-class uprising. Backed by Carlos Fariñas’s stirring score, the dazzling camerawork by Sergei Urusevsky—an inspiration for generations of filmmakers to follow; the justly famous funeral procession scene features one of the greatest tracking shots ever filmed—gives flight to the movie’s message of liberation.
The screening of I Am Cuba is followed by a post-show discussion with Greg and Megan Epler Wood about their recent experiences visiting Cuba.