The Cuba Media Project of the Americans Media Initiative provides an opportunity for audiences in the United States to have access to the work of independent Cuban filmmakers. These films have been made outside the traditional channels of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC) or Cuban TV. As such, these films directly address the everyday concerns of Cubans today; the films present a critical perspective that challenges stereotypes around censorship and freedom of expression in Cuba.
Icarus Films is proud to be the exclusive distributor of the Cuba Media Project's growing collection of contemporary documentaries and short films from Cuba.
An exploration of the fascinating history of Santeria.
Profiles Lency, a man who lives in Cuba's central mountains who has a creative solution to all of life's daily problems there.
An exploration of racism and skin color in Cuba during the 1950s.
Eight animated shorts from the most important showcase for young cinematic talent in Cuba.
Shows how the Cuban military mission to Angola—a massive solidarity effort from a small country—touched the lives of ordinary Cubans.
Follows several residents in the "Elena" building, located in Central Havana, over a three-year period.
A documentary about Freddy Ilanga, an African man whose life was abruptly transformed through a chance encounter with Che Guevara.
In this doc-fiction hybrid, a peasant journeys through the Sierra Maestra to buy a new mule.
Profiles members of the Cuban National women's baseball team, who pursue their passion in a soceity filled with machismo and prejudice.
This DVD collects two recent comedy shorts from Cuba.
A Cuban filmmaker explores her parents' memories of the USSR.
Unveils the complexities of a Cuban society frequently misrepresented by the media.
A documentary that shows how the economy affects the daily lives of ordinary Cuban citizens – and how badly it squeezes those who don’t have access to hard currency.
A beautiful film about the Alamar "organiponico" (organic cooperative farm) located outside of Havana.
Five Cuban intellectuals discuss censorship as a historical, political and social phenomenon.
"It isn't often that Cuban filmmakers get the opportunity to showcase their work in the United States. The Americas Media Initiative provides one of these rare opportunities. Cuba-not the diplomatic juggernaut familiar to US audiences, but rather its landscape and people-come to life in this collection: its landscape in the form of a silent man and his mule's forlorn crossing of the Sierra Maestra (The Infinite Island); its sports and gender issues (Major Leagues?) its politics in the voices of artists, authors and musicians (Zone of Silence); its Afro-Caribbean religious practices (ALAbba).
These films introduce the viewers to compelling and profound characters, emblematic of life in Cuba when the iconoclasm fades back and allows daily life to run its course. We thus meet Lency, a rural Cuban McGyver whose ingenuity knows no limits (A Bridge Over the River), and Freddy Ilanga, a retired neurosurgeon born and raised in Africa, and brought to Cuba after serving as Che's Swahili translator in the era of Cuban support for Congolese rebels (Freddy Llanga: Che's Swahili Translator). Freddy's story, as well as those of Russian and Eastern European women spirited from the Soviet Union to Cuba by their love for visiting Cuban students (They Would All be Queens), showcase the particular 'intermestizaje' brought about by Cuba's unique political trajectory in the twentieth century."
—Julia Sweig, Nelson & David Rockefeller Senior Fellow and Director, Latin America Studies and Global Brazil Initiative Council on Foreign Relations
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