Amílcar Ortiz Cárdenas
Amilcar Ortiz on Facebook

For AfroCubaWeb, it is important that the genuine, homegrown antiracism movement in Cuba be better known in the US. Havana filmmaker Amilcar Ortiz has been chronicling numerous aspects of this movement.

Amílcar is a graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Audiovisual Studies. He has worked extensively in television and music video making. He visited the US during April and May of 2015 making presentations on his films about racism in Cuba. He brought with him a film which was his thesis at ISA, Contra las Cuerdas (On the Ropes), and plans for a new movie which he has been working on, De eso no se habla (We don't talk about this). He has already shot a number of scenes for De eso no se habla, and Roberto Zurbano is an advisor.

Amilcar Ortiz is also the videographer for Red Barrial Afrodescendiente (RBA), a cutting edge neighborhood group that is working on issues of self esteem, anti-racism, and empowerment.  He is working on a film with them as well, entitled INVISIBLES.

Amilcar Ortiz was accepted in 2019 at the prestigious NYU Gallatin school. He was funded for a large percent of his tuition and is working on campus. He still needs additional funds for tuition  this year and next. See GoFundMe by Debbie Billings: NYU Graduate Studies, Amilcar Ortiz Cardenas.

In addition to the above projects, Amilcar is working on a number of related ones, as can be seen on his Facebook page.

"My work denounces the enduring legacies of racism in Cuba from a position that is simultaneously anti-capitalist and counter-hegemonic. The idea is not to further the creation of divisive politics, but rather to promote racial equality within Cuban society. In this way I hope to contribute to the comprehension of the magnitude, complexity, and seriousness of racial politics in contemporary Cuba while holding steadfastly to a denunciation of all forms of discrimination." -- Amilcar Ortiz