In this autobiographical film, Sara Gómez takes us to Guanabacoa, a town southeast of Havana where her father’s family come from. Shots of historical colonial buildings, a Jewish cemetery and a Santería altar evoke the cultural influences feeding into streetlife at the time this film was made.
Gómez uses old portrait photographs and contemporary footage to introduce members of her family—one in which making music plays a cherished role. The film is dedicated to the director’s elderly godmother, the family’s moral compass. Her recollections and anecdotes from the pre-revolutionary days reveal a keen awareness of race and class.
The film concludes with a soundless scene at the kitchen table, in which the free and uncomplicated spirit of Gómez’s favourite aunt Berta is palpable. Guanabacoa is more than merely a family chronicle: this is an evocative portrait of the Black middle-class in pre-and post-revolutionary Cuba.
Guanabacoa: Crónicas de mi familia was digitally restored by Vulnerable Media Lab as part of the Sara Gómez Project.
Stills
