In this episode, Jason Christian and Anthony Ballas are joined by guest Silas Nathan to discuss Mikhail Kalatozov's iconic film, I Am Cuba (1964), a Soviet-Cuban collaboration about the years just before and during the revolution.
Silas Nathan is a Latin Americanist, translator, and photographer whose work focuses on US-Latin America relations. He wrote his undergraduate thesis about Cuban cinema. He has a BA in Spanish Studies and a master's degree in teaching, both from Bard College.
In this episode we discuss:
- The recent US State Department Cuba report, its implications for political organizing, and its connection to Cold War history.
- The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry, or ICAIC, the state-funded filmmaking organization established in March of 1959, just three months after the Revolutionary victory. The organization is still making films to this day.
- The historical and political context of I Am Cuba
- Kalatov's dialectical aesthetic vision
- The incredible production and cinematography of I Am Cuba
- The misunderstood legacy of I Am Cuba and its orginal reception in Cuba.
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We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:
Silas's recommendations: the books Cuban Cinema by Michael Chanan and Cuba: A New History by Richard Gott; the news organization Belly of the Beast; and the 1968 film Memories of Underdevelopment, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.
Tony's recommendations: the 1944 Haitian novel Gouverneurs de la rosée, by Jacques Roumain, and the 1968 Soviet novel The Foundation Pit, by Andrei Platonov.
Jason's recommendations: the Cuba Analysis podcast, especially the recent episode with Prof. Isaac Saney; the book We Are Cuba! How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World by Helen Yaffe; and the 1977 film De cierta manera (One Way or Another), directed by Sara Gómez.
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Logo by Jason Christian
Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).
Happy listening!
