Memories of Underdevelopment
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The Free Screening Series at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1
is supported by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.
Admission is on a first-come, first-seated basis. $2 VLAFF Membership required.
Available for purchase at the door.
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Spanish with English subtitles.
Director: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea Producer: Miguel Mendoza Writers: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Edmundo Desnoes Cinematographer: Ramón F. Suárez
Editor: Nelson Rodríguez Sound: Eugenio Vesa, Carlos Fernández Music: Leo Brouwer Cast: Sergio Corrieri, Daisy Granados, Eslinda Núñez, Omar Valdéz, René de la Cruz
In honour of the 55th Anniversary of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC), the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival is thrilled to present this screening of the classic Cuban film Memories of Underdevelopment. Hailed by many critics as the most sophisticated film ever to come out of Cuba, Memories of Underdevelopment is the masterpiece of visionary Cuban director and ICAIC co-founder Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The film appears in many experts’ lists of the Top 100 films of all time.
Sergio, a Cuban bourgeois dilettante and aspiring writer, refuses to accompany his family into exile in the USA in the years following the triumph of the Revolution. His inconsistent ideology keeps him on the sidelines of a frenzied society; having lost his former world, he can’t quite find his place in the new revolutionary process, and spends his time chasing women to fill the void. As the October Missile Crisis of 1962 unfolds, Sergio’s intellectual ideals, like his country, are put to the ultimate test.
This stirring blend of narrative fiction, still photography and rare documentary footage catalogs the many intricacies and contradictions of a bourgeois Cuban intellectual's loyalty to Castro's revolution. Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Celebrando el 55 aniversario del Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, nuestro festival tiene el honor de presentar una de las cintas más emblemáticas de la historia del cine cubano, dirigida por el maestro Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (dir, Fresa y Chocolate). Memorias del Subdesarrollo es considerada como una de las 100 mejores cintas del cine mundial.
Sergio, un diletante burgués cubano, se niega a acompañar a su familia al exilio en los Estados Unidos. Su inconsistencia ideológica lo mantiene como simple espectador de una sociedad convulsa, perdido ya su antiguo mundo y sin poder incorporarse al nuevo proceso revolucionario.
La nueva economía, la nueva visión política y social que determina el estallido de la revolución cubana presupone, a su vez, un hombre nuevo. Memorias del Subdesarrollo es el relato de un burgués que intenta entender la revolución; pero es, además, el manifiesto de ese hombre nuevo.
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (1928-1996, Havana, Cuba) directed Esta tierra nuestra in 1959, the first documentary to be made by ICAIC; and in 1960, he directed ICAIC’s first narrative feature, Historias de la Revolución. His hugely popular 1993 film, Fresa y chocolate, won the Goya Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Community Partner: Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba