Dok Night – Symbiopsychotaxicinema –> MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT   1968

18:00  Bar open 

19:00 Vegan meals by Suzie Creamcheese

20:30 film screening by SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXICINEMA

 

MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT   1968
(Memorias del Subdesarrollo)
Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
104 minutes
In Spanish with English subtitles

Once upon a time there was an event called the “Bay of Pigs”—an attempted overthrow of the Cuban government by the American CIA. It ended in utter disaster for the Americans, and caused the deaths of many Cubans. This semi-fictional movie made in Cuba, starts up just after this fiasco, and the constant threat of foreign invasion is still lingering in the air throughout the film. America’s attacks on Cuba should not be seen outside of the lens of colonization, because that’s exactly how the country was founded – people throwing out foreign corporations that were exploiting them and taking back their own land. Curiously, the only piece of Cuba still annexed by America is a place called Guantánamo Bay and it is still today being used as a torture chamber.

What we have here is our main character Sergio, an intellectual and an artist, who remains aloof to the backdrop of the social events that are unfolding. He is more interested in women and art than politics. But nevertheless, the post-revolutionary situation that was exploding in Cuba is the backdrop, and is vividly documented. This brings up a theme that runs through many of Cuban director Alea’s films—the conflict between personal desire and social urgency. Absorbing influences from European cinema, Alea’s style is free-wheeling – fusing fiction with documentary footage, poetic images, literary narration, flashbacks and montages of 1960s life in Havana.

Through the story of Sergio’s life we also see the early revolutionary days of Cuba, and the problems it faced. Sergio’s wife leaves him for a more secure life in the States, as do many of his friends and neighbors. So this is a fiction film, based on the book by Edmundo Desnoës, that directly addresses the real situation in Cuba during the heat of explosive turmoil… and the amazing result seems surprisingly open and honest, with a big question mark at the end about the future of Cuba. It’s considered by many to be the best Cuban film ever made, and one of the greatest films of the 1960s new wave era that was sweeping through Latin America.

This will be a high-definition screening.

Presented by Jeffrey Badcock
A series of socially engaged movies, screened once a month on Thursdays. Touching on such hot topics as immigration, homelessness, racism, education, radical gender propositions, the pandemic and gentrification, these films not only explore visionary politics, but are also chosen to stir our imagination and creativity. The essence of cinema is the collective experience, and these screenings are aimed at creating intimate communities again in an increasingly hectic and fragmented world.