The State and the Digital:

Director Esteban Insausti, originally scheduled to present his film, is unable to attend this evening's screening. Actress Annia Bu Maure, who starred in the film, will present in his place.

Introduction by Laura-Zoë Humphreys, Ph.D. candidate, Departments of Cinema & Media Studies and Anthropology

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba entered a long economic crisis designated the “Special Period in Times of Peace” by Fidel Castro. Cubans, especially youth, have left the country in vast numbers for the United States and other nations in the last twenty years.

Esteban Insausti's first feature, Larga Distancia (Long Distance), explores the emotional impact of this mass exodus on his generation. Based on Insausti’s own experience, Long Distance tells the story of a woman who on her 35th birthday finds that she has lost all of her friends to this crisis. To console herself, she spends an evening reinventing the best of her past life and friendships.

A graduate of Cuba’s art school, the Instituto Superior de Arte, Insausti is part of a young generation of filmmakers who are using digital technologies to invent new modes of production in Cuba. With Long Distance, Insausti takes the skills and techniques he learned through independent filmmaking back into work at the state film institute. Using an HD Panasonic 200 and a minimal budget, Insausti’s feature is part of Cuba’s return to nationally funded cinema after a long period of dependence on foreign co-productions.

(Esteban Insausti, 2010, DVD, 90 min.)

This is the first in a two-part series on national filmmaking and the digital in Cuba. See the event blog for more information about upcoming events and guests in this series.

Series coordinated by Laura-Zoë Humphreys and Davis Reek, M.A. Humanities, University of Chicago.