Epicentro

From Friday, September 18th, 2020 to Friday, October 9th, 2020

Details

USA | 1959/2020 | 85 mins |

Category

Virtual

Film Type

Documentary

Cost

$12

Virtual Ticket

Director

Hubert Sauper

Source

Kino Lorber

Grand Jury Prize Winner Documentary World Cinema – Sundance Film Festival 2020

Epicentro is an immersive and metaphorical portrait of post-colonial, “utopian” Cuba, where the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine still resonates. This Big Bang ended Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas and ushered in the era of the American Empire. At the same time and place, a powerful tool of conquest was born: cinema as propaganda. In his latest film, Hubert Sauper (Darwin’s Nightmare) explores a century of interventionism and myth-making together with the extraordinary people of Havana — who he calls “young prophets” — to interrogate time, imperialism and cinema itself.

The film is a metaphorical portrait of post-colonial Cuba, whose relationship to the United States changed starting in 1898 with the explosion of the USS Main in Havana. That event ended Spanish colonial dominance and ushered in everything American, including its cinema and the propaganda that it facilitated.

“Metaphorical” well describes a few minutes at the start of the film when you wonder exactly what it is you’re looking at. Exercise patience and you’ll get to the brilliance of the film – the way Cubans (often young ones) see their country’s relationship with the United States and what they see as interventionism and/or propaganda.

Epicentro allows you deep into Cuban homes and into the thoughts of Cubans young and old. It also lets you draw your own conclusions as to the behavior of American tourists in the island.