Sunday, August 3, 2008

Video: Cuba - 1962 -Two rare 16 mm films.

Two films converted to video from the original 16 mm film they were on.
Both from Cuba, produced in 1962 by 'El Instituto Cubano Del Arte E Industria Cinematograficos'. Both filmed in beautiful black and white.

The first is titled "Festival De La Musica Popular", which starts out showing musicians and dancers preparing for a show.
Contradaza, Son, Rumba with Celeste Mendoza dancing and Comparsa from Santiago.
The sound track is not quite "live", but that doen't really matter.
17:00 min.

.............................................................................................

The second film is about 'Regla', a city on the southeastern shore of La Habana Bay, an industrial suburb of Havana, with which it is linked by ferry boat, shown in the fim.
During the colonization of Cuba, the Spaniards founded a city on the bay of Havana, Cuba and named it "Regla," after he Spanish port. 'La Virgen de Regla' then became the patron saint of the city of Regla. Regla is also an important centre for the practice of 'Regla De Ocha' (Santería), a religious tradition of west African origin.
This has several scenes showing 'Jesús Peréz' together with 'Trinidad Torregrosa' playing Batá
along with an unknown third drummer.
This is 1962..... and reflects the socio-political climate of Cuba.
The cinematography in black and white is beautiful.
(several shots of people wearing "the eyeglasses")
29:00 min.


Both films from the archival collection of John Amira.

"Festival De La Musica Popular" 
1962 Cuba



"Regla" 
1962 Cuba

on

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 3, 2008 at 5:33 PM

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    Mil gracias thank you. I've send out your link and today's comment about the two movies to the CubaNews list which might also be of interest to you.

    For the last eight years I've been covering the Cuban scene and spending lots of time there (General license). Going on 90,000 items from, about or related to Cuba in the Yahoo news group's free and easy-to-use database.

    You've done a great good deed for us all. Am running out now, but wanted to thanks you thank you thank you.

    Best wishes,


    Walter Lippmann

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2008 at 9:55 PM

    The cinematography of both reminds me of the documentary "Nosotros, La Musica" made a couple of years later. Interesting stuff.

    Thanks to both you and John. I know he's a treasure trove of information.

    ReplyDelete