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Sara Gòmez died so young (31) but left behind such a rich body of work. As one of the only three black film-makers then she co-founded the ICAIC (Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art & Industry) with Santiago Alvarez + others. Her cinematic genius employed the radical & 1/
revolutionary potential of film making centring not only wider social inequalities that Afro-Cubans were subjected to, but specially the socio-economic annihilation of Black women in a post revolutionary Cuba. 2/
Gomez work was as much about foregrounding the richness to imagine their lives, as it was critiquing Cuban revolutionary society for failing its promises of equality to Afro-Cubans, whom were still affected by existent racial hierarchies under a liberated Cuba. 3/
As a consequence much of her work was sanctioned & restricted by the Cuban government not made publicly available until 2007 when they began to be digitised. Gomez today is still one of only two black women to be admitted into the ICAIC. 4/
It’s really interesting to observe some of the very polarising opinions on Black liberation in Cuba. As it isn’t my conversation I thread carefully, but think in reflection to the contemporary significance of Gomez’s work on existent racial discrepancies absent from general 5/
& wider nuances on Cuba, a country many of us hold to high esteem because of its history, moreover significance to Black liberation globally. Perhaps what I’m suggesting for nuance(?) is to think alongside Gomez’s work.
Sara Gomez and Gloria Rolando (pictured) are 61 years after ICAIC’s founding the only two Black women to be admitted
4 films by Gomez on CAS's film-list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_xULqMM-IppLHvkKbOQE8QXnPjoNrbcUDERlq-HQwqQ/edit#gid=0
