April 11: Screening — Sara Gomez and Nicolás Guillén Landrián shorts

Monday, 5-7 McCormick Screening Room

Sara Gomez (1942-1974), best known for her feature fiction film De cierta manera, was the first woman filmmaker at the Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, which was established immediately following the 1959 revolution. She was also the first woman to make a feature fiction film in Cuba, followed only by Gloria Rolando; both are among the few Afrocubans to make feature films. She studied under Tomás Gutierrez Alea and the French filmmaker Agnes Varda beginning when she was 19-year-old. While best known today for De cierta manera, she worked primarily in documentary filmmaking, honing a distinct style that, like other “Third Cinemas” of the era, rejects Hollywood and other more commercial filmic conventions. A dedicated revolutionary, Gomez’s films document Cuba’s struggle against imperialism, sexism, and classism, while remaining critical of racial divisions and celebrating African presence in Cuban culture.


Nicolás Guillén Landrián (1938-2003), nephew of poet Nicolas Guillen, was an Afrcocuban experimental filmmaker, painter and writer. He made 13 documentaries, all which focus on the lives of everyday people, not as part of the masses, but rather as individuals. His experimental films have been called irreverent and pointed, and were subject to heavy censorship. He was jailed twice, and institutionalized where it is said he underwent electroshock treatment. He immigrated to Miami in 1989.