I Am Cuba!
by Zia ~ January 9th, 2006. Filed under: Art.“Do you want to see I Am Cuba?” Steve asked. “It’s playing at the Northwest Film Forum .”
“Sure,” I said. We went to Capitol Hill, had burritos and then went to the theatre. Thank God I had the foresight to get coffee; it kept us awake during the several lifetimes we spent in that dark room.
I Am Cuba was made in the 60s by the Soviets to show the need for revolution. They attemped this through several interminable, nearly wordless vignettes. I say “attempted” because the vignettes were full of specious logic that bugged me, probably because I am too fundamentally American to understand needlessly dying for a cause. I will say that the cinematography was gorgeous, especially in the beginning when the filmmakers are trying to show the decadence of pre-revolution Cuba. Which, by the way, only made me long for an era gone by.
And it was not uninteresting as a historical example of Soviet propoganda. Americans were portrayed as insensitive louts, which, let’s face it, isn’t far from the truth.
However, the film lasted forever. Longer than forever. One group got up and left after the narrator intoned “Soy Cuba!” for the 4th time. We were envious, but determined to get our respective $9 worth of independent film. And when the blessed word Fin appeared on the black and white screen, we heaved a huge sigh of relief. “That was awful,” said Steve. “I was expecting Buena Vista Club in black and white.”
Apparently, Communists have much longer attention spans than we capitalist pigs do.