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The Cinema of Sara Gómez

Reframing Revolution      
Edited by Susan Lord and María Caridad Cumaná, 2020     

Contributions by Inés María Martiatu Terry, Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal, Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, Sergio Giral, Luis García Mesa, Devyn Spence Benson, Rigoberto López, Joshua Malitsky, Ana Serra, Iván Arocha Montes de Oca, Ricardo Acosta, Alan West-Durán and Sandra Abd’Allah-Alvarez Ramírez
With Victor Fowler Calzada      Click here for pricing & to order  ==>

Throughout the 1960s and '70s, Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez endured social, political, economic, and cultural transformation in Cuba, experiences that are manifested in her revolutionary work.

Gómez produced many short documentary films in 10 prolific years. She also created De cierta manera (One way or another), her only feature-length film prior to her untimely death. Her carefully crafted utopian scenes navigate complex social, racial, and sexual relationships. Not only have her inventive strategies become foundational to new Cuban cinema and feminist film culture, but they also still inspire media artists today who deal with issues of identity and difference.

The Cinema of Sara Gómez assembles a comprehensive history, criticism, biography, methodology, and theory of Gómez's entire body of work, unpacking her complex life and giving weight to her groundbreaking cinema.  --  iupress.org/9780253057051/the-cinema-of-sara-gomez/
   

Articles/Artículos

Sara Gómez: un cine diferente  4/22/2019 Sara Gómez Yera: "La ensayista Olga García Yero publico en el año 2017 el libro "Sara Gómez: un cine diferente", Ediciones ICAIC. Que se conozca, este es el primero publicado en Cuba dedicado a la una de las figuras más importantes del #cinecubano"

Cuba in 1968  4/29/2018 Jacobin: by Samuel Farber - "Thanks to this apparent openness, neither the foreign guests nor many of the invited Cuban intellectuals suspected that an important group of black Cuban intellectuals and artists — among them Rogelio Martínez Furé, Nancy Morejón, Sara Gómez, Pedro Pérez-Sarduy, Nicolás Guillén Landrián, and Walterio Carbonell — had been excluded. According to the Black Cuban author Carlos Moore, the group had been meeting to discuss the Cuban government’s lack of action against racism, a problem that the revolutionary leaders claimed to have solved with the abolition of racial segregation in the early sixties. In response to a rumor that these intellectuals had drafted a position paper on race and culture in Cuba for the congress, Minister of Education José Llanusa Gobel called them in for a private meeting a couple of days before the event began. After listening to their critiques, Llanusa accused them of being “seditious” and told them that the “revolution” would not allow them to “divide” the Cuban people along racial lines. He explained that the very idea of their “black manifesto” was a provocation for which they would have to recant or face the consequences."

Una cineasta de la que poco se habla: Gloria Rolando  3/28/2018 Radio Habana: "Desde sus inicios en la producción de documentales, Gloria ha insistido en la investigación, el estudio y la plasmación en la pantalla ancha de temas referidos a la vida, la obra, las circunstancias de figuras y aconteceres de los cubanos y otros caribeños descendientes de africanos, incursionando en hechos históricos como la creación del primer y único partido de los cubanos de color, como se le llamó en aquellos años iniciales del siglo xx; la presencia de haitianos, barbadenses y de Islas Caimán en nuestro país, así como sobre aspectos de la cultura popular : las comparsas o figuras de la música como el reconocido Lázaro Ross y la propia vida familiar, tema cuya inicial aparición en pantalla se debe a nuestra primera cineasta de ficción, Sara Gómez, de quien Gloria se siente deudora."

Algunos apuntes sobre el cine cubano hecho por afrocubanas: Los casos de Sara Gómez y Gloria Rolando  5/26/2017 Negra Cubana: Universidad libre de Berlín, miércoles 7 de junio, a las 10 am en el Lateinamerika-Institut, Rüdesheimer Str. 54-56, Berlin, en la sala 201. ¡Si estás en Berlín te puedes dar el salto!"

Mujeres y medios de comunicación, hacia un camino más inclusivo  2/20/2017 La Ventana: "A propósito del tema en cuestión y tomando también como paradigma la imagen de Sara Gómez que identifica al Coloquio en esta edición, la primera de las actividades estuvo reservada a los trabajos de Gloria Rolando, otra destacada documentalista cubana, quien acabó de ser jurado en el Premio Literario Casa de las Américas 2017. Los audiovisuales de Gloria, un recorrido histórico desde Oggún, el primero de ellos en 1991, dieron paso a la primera mesa."

A Film Series Honors Black Women Directors  1/27/2017 NYT: "Like any good revolutionary, [Sara] Gómez doesn’t mince words: When she discusses patriarchy, she brings out the literal wrecking ball. She isn’t always subtle, but her approach in “One Way or Another” is complex and pleasurably dialectical."

Our Cuba: Afrocuban Women, Filmmaking and Equality  11/4/2015 Shine: by Amberly Alene Ellis - "For over 35 years, since the passing of Sara Gomez, ICAIC would only produce one more Afro-Cuban woman director. Gloria Rolando began filmmaking in the 1990’s immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union and the start of the Special Period in Cuba. Gloria’s subject matter is heavily influenced by Sara Gomez, and in fact she makes and ode to Sara in her feature film, Roots of my Heart."

Nuestra Cuba: Women, Filmmaking and Equality  6/16/2015 The Center for Media & Social Impact: "Nuestra Cuba invites dialogue amongst historians, cultural producers, and scholars on the future of Cuban cinema, and the place it holds for the drastic minority of women in the Cuban filmmaking industry. The film confronts the long silence surrounding the impact of Gomez and Rolando not only in Cuba, but also in movements of counter cinema around the world. "

Nuestra Cuba: Women, Filmmaking and Equality  6/15/2015 CMSI: " I embarked on the filming of Nuestra Cuba (Our Cuba), a documentary that follows the untold stories of the Institute of Cuban Cinematographic Art and Industry’s (ICIAC) first women and Afro-Cuban filmmakers: Sara Gomez and Gloria Rolando. Nuestra Cuba invites dialogue amongst historians, cultural producers, and scholars on the future of Cuban cinema, and the place it holds for the drastic minority of women in the Cuban filmmaking industry. The film confronts the long silence surrounding the impact of Gomez and Rolando not only in Cuba, but also in movements of counter cinema around the world."

VOLVER A SARA GÓMEZ... DE CIERTA MANERA  12/12/2014 UNEAC: "Sara Gómez habría cumplido ahora setenta años. Autora de una notable obra documental que ha trascendido entre las más influyentes, controversiales y socialmente inquisitivas obras del cine revolucionario cubano, dejó además un largometraje, De cierta manera (1974), que a cuarenta años de realizado constituye un testimonio apasionante y un documento indispensable sobre su época. Marginalidad, feminismo, cultura y religiosidad popular son términos que se asocian invariablemente al cine de Sara Gómez."

A Look Back at the Afro-Cuban Films of Sara Gomez, Cuba’s First Female Director  9/18/2014 Remezcla: with links to her films - "Trained as a musician and ethnographer, Sara Gómez came from the folkloric Havana neighborhood of Guanabacoa — traditionally viewed as one of the epicenters of Afro-Cuban popular culture. After entering the ICAIC in 1961 as an apprentice, she worked as Assistant Director on several films including Agnes Varda’s Salut les cubains! and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s Cumbite. Though a good friend and mentor to Gómez, Titón later admitted that “Sarita” was a disaster as Assistant Director: a minor defect she made up for with her uncanny originality, passion, and strength of character."

Mujeres en La Rampa  8/19/2014 Juventud Rebelde: "Y en la ya mencionada sala de cine cerrarán las propuestas de la Editorial de la Mujer en saludo a la FMC. Allí, el día 22, a las 3:00 p.m., en vísperas del nuevo aniversario de la Federación de Mujeres Cubanas, y tomando además como motivación el cumpleaños 70 de la premio nacional de Literatura Nancy Morejón, se exhibirá el documental Mi aporte (1972), de Sara Gómez. En 33 minutos este material examina el tema de las mujeres y su inserción en el trabajo en el espacio público. Presentada por la realizadora y directora de cine Gloria Rolando, esta obra nos ofrece la mirada cuestionadora de su autora, quien nos hace notar cómo en una sociedad como la nuestra se reproducían estigmas machistas."

Y tenemos sabor, un programa de radio para la música cubana  7/17/2014 Negra Cubana: "Negracubana produce, dirige y modera el programa de radio Y tenemos sabor el que sale al aire los cuartos sábados de cada mes, en el lugar del programa Buena Onda, de la emisora por internet Radio Flora. El programa tiene como tema fundamental la música cubana y ha tomado el nombre del documental que Sara Gomez le dedicase a la isla musical."

Remembering AfroCuban Filmmaker Sara Gomez  9/13/2013 Progressive Pupil 

Marguerite Duras/Sara Goméz  9/6/2013 Negra Cubana: "En diálogo con su post, decido publicar íntegramente el Cuestionario de 9 preguntas, donde podemos tomarle el pulso a la Sara de probablemente 25 años [1967] y a la sociedad cubana de esos momentos."

Sara Gómez en su propia voz  5/29/2012 Negra Cubana: "No puedo plantearme el cine didáctico como una especialidad, sino como una necesidad. "

Afrocuban Religions in Sara Gomez' "One Way or Another" and Gloria Rolando's "Oggun"  2/19/2012 The Western Journal of Black Studies: published in 1998

Sara Gómez article on rumba: Cuba Vol 3, No. 2 1964  8/16/2010 Esquina Rumbera: "Sara Gómez is most known today for her films "...y tenemos sabor" and "De cierta manera." I am not aware of any other articles she has written. The article also contains historic photographs of the old "Clave y Guaguancó" by Mário García Joya, "Mayito," who also had a distinguished career in Cuban cinema and now lives in Los Angeles. Some of them we have seen before in a book by Olavo Alén Rodríguez, but others are new, such as this one of Agustín "el Bongocero" Gutiérrez."

Vamos a guarachar!: Sara Gómez article on rumba: Cuba Vol 3, No. 2 1964  8/16/2010 Esquina Rumbera 

Sara Gómez: an untrodden path to a Cuban legacy  11/6/2007 Cuba Now: "Wondering why her documentary works ever vanished from the silver screen after her fictional maiden work of 1974, ¨De cierta manera¨ (One Way or Another), hit Cuban theaters in 1977, the attendees repeatedly referred to Sarita as the visionary she always was. By rekindling old memories of her, the symposium made the point of revisiting her unique talent to grasp, document and, above all, question, the Cuban reality of the 60s, at a time when the whole country was embracing a new social model, while still struggling with old racial and gender prejudices. The validity of Gomez´s cinematic approach for Cuba – and the world at large- today may be an essential outcome of the colloquium. In the 60s many of her chronological peers might had failed to understand that, through her incisive documentaries, Sara Gomez was speaking volumes when she delved into the logical contradictions between desire and reality, change and tradition, slogans and daily life. Oddly enough, however, her films did not made a splash among the filmmaking community of the time, but rather left their lasting imprint in the ranks of playwrights, according to an old friend and former colleague of Sara Gomez’s. Writer Inés María Martiatu recalled during the meeting how De cierta manera opened the doors of Cuban theatres to pieces that also dealt with topics such as social exclusion, male chauvinism and racism, such as Andoba, by the late Alberto Pedro."

Con Sara Gómez, palabras para una expo  11/3/2007 Jiribilla: "La obra de Sara Gómez y su personalidad como artista fueron invisibilizadas y muy poco promovidas. Si revisamos una colección de la Revista Cine Cubano encontraremos que aquella mujer negra y joven, la única que por mucho tiempo se puso con sensibilidad y talento detrás de una cámara de cine para dirigir, y la única que hasta ahora ha realizado un largometraje en el ICAIC, no aparece en sus páginas."

De cierta manera feminista de filmar  11/3/2007 Jiribilla: "Por muchas razones, De cierta manera (1974) es una de los largometrajes más citados dentro del cine cubano: fue el primero hecho por Sara Gómez, marcando su tránsito del cine documental al cine de ficción (algo así como la mayoría de edad); fue el primero realizado en Cuba por una mujer luego de la fundación del ICAIC —Sara era la única directora de cine con que constaba tal institución en aquel entonces—; porque fue el primero en tratar el tema de la marginalidad[1], pues luego de diversas medidas tomadas por el gobierno revolucionario, aún quedaban determinados comportamientos en la población cubana que requerían ser cuestionados. Co-escrita junto a Tomas González, quien también le asistiría en el guión de algunos de los documentales, y asesorada en la parte documental por Alberto Pedro Díaz, De cierta manera “es un filme cuyo derrotero nadie ha ido mas allá, ni ha logrado una visión tan popular y desacralizadora y humana de una porción de nuestro contexto muy fundamental y poco escudriñado, sin prejuicios y con profundidad”[2]."

Sara Gómez. Recondando a la primera directora de cine del Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográfico  11/1/2007 Mujeres en Red: "Murió joven, con apenas 32 años. Sin embargo, su obra perdura. En las décadas de los sesenta y setenta del pasado siglo, Sara incursionó primero en los documentales y luego en la ficción, con su obra De cierta manera, de cuyo estreno se cumplen 30 años en 2007."

Where is Sara Gomez? (¿Dónde está Sara Gomez?)  10/1/2007 Scope: A Review by Kwame Dixon, Syracuse University, USA

Sarita and the Revolution: Race and Cuban Cinema  4/15/2007 European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 

DONDE ESTA SARA GOMEZ  12/1/2004 Culture Unplugged: "Sara Gomez was a 'searcher.' My first encounter with her was watching her only fiction film and it blew my mind. She was the first Afro-Cuban woman filmmaker to have shot a fiction film and, more than thirty years later, the film (as well as her documentaries) remains so vibrant, so contemporary, and so touching. She searched new territories, brought people together from opposite worlds, and created new landscapes. And she died like a drama character, in the early seventies at age thirty-one, leaving behind a couple of brilliant films, two husbands, and three children; the ones who knew her, regret her departure. She left no apparent trail in the new filmmakers generation, but it’s as if her ghost is still around, sometimes in the most unexpected places." [Actually, she left us Gloria Rolando.]

Afrocuban Religions in Sara Gomez's One Way or Another and Gloria Rolando's Oggun  12/1/1998 The Western Journal of Black Studies: Vol 22, No 4, Winter 1998 by HASEENAH EBRAHIM, Northwestern University - "This paper explores the depiction of Afrocuban religions in two films -- Sara Gomez's One Way or Another (1974/1977) and Gloria Rolando's Oggun: Forever Present (1991). A (Western)feminist's analysis of Gomez's One Way or Another characterizes Abakua and Santeria as "voodoo" -- not only collapsing three different Afro-Caribbean religious traditions, but also reflecting Marxist biases that exclude (ironically) a recognition that Gomez's depictions of Abakua and Santeria reflect a gendered perspective. Rolando's Oggun reflects a recent trend in Cuban cinema to celebrate Afrocuban religious practices. Oggun's stunning visuals, compelling song and dance sequences, and fascinating mythology provoke a desire to understand the role and impact of this remarkable religious tradition in Cuban society."
 
   

Sara Gómez: an untrodden path to a Cuban legacy, Cuba Now, 11/6/07

By Isidro Estrada

Cubanow.- Fortunately for many Cuban filmgoers, Sara Gómez is back in town. Or at least her legacy is. Once a promising film director, she was snatched from us when she was only 31, on June 2, 1974, after a devastating attack of asthma cut short the life of the first Cuban woman director to have ever made a full-length feature in the island. Adding that she was black, articulate and highly controversial should help in drawing a life-size picture of a cineaste that’s just beginning to speak her mind. The Colloquium Sara Gomez: Multiple Image, Cuban audiovisual means from a gender perspective, hosted by the Cinematographic Cultural Center of the Cuban Film Institute in the first week of November in Havana, aroused bitter-sweet memories among a few dozen connoisseurs, relatives, friends, filmmakers and fans that gathered for the occasion. But rather than concentrating in long-overdue obituaries, they chose to discuss at length all the topics that made Sara enjoy her career as a director who managed to become a subject of her own films. Wondering why her documentary works ever vanished from the silver screen after her fictional maiden work of 1974, ¨De cierta manera¨ (One Way or Another), hit Cuban theaters in 1977, the attendees repeatedly referred to Sarita as the visionary she always was. By rekindling old memories of her, the symposium made the point of revisiting her unique talent to grasp, document and, above all, question, the Cuban reality of the 60s, at a time when the whole country was embracing a new social model, while still struggling with old racial and gender prejudices. The validity of Gomez´s cinematic approach for Cuba – and the world at large- today may be an essential outcome of the colloquium. In the 60s many of her chronological peers might had failed to understand that, through her incisive documentaries, Sara Gomez was speaking volumes when she delved into the logical contradictions between desire and reality, change and tradition, slogans and daily life. Oddly enough, however, her films did not made a splash among the filmmaking community of the time, but rather left their lasting imprint in the ranks of playwrights, according to an old friend and former colleague of Sara Gomez’s. Writer Inés María Martiatu recalled during the meeting how De cierta manera opened the doors of Cuban theatres to pieces that also dealt with topics such as social exclusion, male chauvinism and racism, such as Andoba, by the late Alberto Pedro. De cierta manera, which Sara could not see on the screen due to her early death, would later go through a rugged path until it finally premiered by the end of 1977. An accident during the process of negative development rendered the film almost unpresentable to viewers until it was later repaired. Nowadays, many critics agree, it remains as fresh as and relevant as it was 30 years ago. It is a classic of Cuban cinema, comparable to Memories of Underdevelopment, by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, who by the way, became Gomez´s principal mentor at the Cuban Film Institute in the 60s. Sara Gómez emphasized a vision of social criticism in which she refused to behave as an outsider. She never shied away from getting deeply involved –even by appearing in her films- in the topics she dealt with. She was a revolutionary and therefore felt thoroughly committed when pointing out the flaws of the socio-political process she was so much a part of. Here follows Sara Gomez’s filmography: 1964 Ire a Santiago 1965 Excursion a Vueltabajo 1967 Y tenemos sabor 1968 En la otra isla 1969 Isla del tesero 1970 Poder local, poder popular 1971 Un documental a proposito del transito 1972 Atencion prenatal; Ano uno 1973 Sobre horas extras y trabajo voluntario 1977 De cierta manera (One Way or Another) her only full-length feature *The author is a reporter for Cubanow. *Originally written in English

Sara Gómez bio de ICAIC

Links/Enlaces

www.kweli.tv/programs/sara-gomez-an-afro-cuban-filmmaker

Palabras para una muestra: Sara Gomez 
por Inés María

Sara Gómez: another dream, Gloria Rolando

Sara Gomez, an Afro-Cuban Filmmaker, Africanfilms.com

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_G%C3%B3mez

Afrocuban Religions in Sara Gomez's One Way or Another and Gloria Rolando's Oggun  12/1/1998 The Western Journal of Black Studies: "This paper explores the depiction of Afrocuban religions in two films -- Sara Gomez's One Way or Another (1974/1977) and Gloria Rolando's Oggun: Forever Present (1991). A (Western)feminist's analysis of Gomez's One Way or Another characterizes Abakua and Santeria as "voodoo" -- not only collapsing three different Afro-Caribbean religious traditions, but also reflecting Marxist biases that exclude (ironically) a recognition that Gomez's depictions of Abakua and Santeria reflect a gendered perspective. Rolando's Oggun reflects a recent trend in Cuban cinema to celebrate Afrocuban religious practices. Oggun's stunning visuals, compelling song and dance sequences, and fascinating mythology provoke a desire to understand the role and impact of this remarkable religious tradition in Cuban society."

SARA GOMEZ: AN AFRO-CUBAN FILMMAKER \ 77 mins, Kweli TV

Gloria Rolando, who followed in her footsteps

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