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Films: Ojo Rebelde: Six Films by Nicolás Guillén Landrián at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
With a camera as sharp as it was lyrical, Nicolás Guillén Landrián captured the rhythms, ironies, and quiet rebellions of post-revolutionary Cuba. His short films—by turns satirical, surreal, and intimate—cut against official narratives, offering a rebel’s eye on everyday life. Recently restored after decades of censorship and neglect, these six works echo MATRIX 197 artist Sofía Gallisá Muriente’s own archival excavations that reclaim history through image and montage.
Films, in screening order:
Coffea Arábiga (1968): This blistering, satirical collage of revolutionary rhetoric and coffee cultivation exposes the absurdities of ideological propaganda. 18 minutes
Los del baile (1965): Joy, movement, and identity pulse through every frame of this rhythmic, intimate portrait of Afro-Cuban dancers. 10 minutes
Reportaje, Plenaria Campesina (1966): This droll film capturing a peasant assembly reveals the theater of state power and rural performance. 15 minutes
Ociel del Toa (1965): Set in revolutionary Cuba, the film meditates on the daily rituals of a young man living along the Toa River, nature, solitude, and quiet dignity. 17 minutes
Taller de Línea y 18 (1971): Repetition and rhythm inside a Havana auto repair shop become resistance in this portrait of labor, machinery, and quiet endurance. 15 minutes
En un barrio viejo (1963): An elegiac walk through the fading beauty of old Havana’s crumbling walls and cobblestone streets speaks volumes in this early architectural reverie. 9 minutes
Free with admission. Registration encouraged.
All films in Spanish with English subtitles. Total running time 1 hour, 24 minutes. Not rated. Restorations courtesy of Alta Habana Films and the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC).
