Hi,
I’m continuing to share excerpts from a recent project, which I’ve briefly described as:
I wrote about two films, Chris Marker’s Cuba Si! and Agnes Varda’s Salut les Cubains. The films are about Cuba, yet they are not made by Cubans. Each plays with the visual language of politically-engaged documentary, the video essay and, at times, poetry. They are examples of many things: the optimism felt by artists, writers and filmmakers about socialism through the 20th century; they are tremendously influential examples of avant-garde cinema; each is a turning point in the life and career of its maker.
The first excerpt ‘losers who didn't get to write history’ is online too.
Chris
Castro ‘wings of stone’ scene from Salut les Cubains by Agnes Varda.
Marker very consciously made Cuba Si! to push back against hostile attitudes within the Global North. In a preface of the script, he wrote: ‘It also aims at countering the monstrous wave of misinformation in the major part of the press.’ By presenting Castro unedited, in raw footage, Marker was optimistically giving audiences a chance to make up their own mind, while also providing the Cuban perspective on independence in full. Such filmmaking is led by purpose: documentary with a didactic aim, art as an expression of solidarity with a besieged revolution.
Yet, for Varda, Castro was illusive. “I was hoping that someone would offer me an appointment with Fidel Castro.” When she would meet him, it happened almost by accident and their encounter was remarkably informal. She went to an apartment that seemed to function as a de facto office. Men with guns in uniform flowed in and out, perhaps as guards, and other officials were present too, such as Celia Sánchez, a secretary and minister. She had promised to photograph Castro, yet this was a kind of excuse to facilitate the introduction itself. “One day, someone calls me to tell me that he was in a restaurant by the sea, where he liked to go, and that I could stop by. It happened like that.”
He features in various ways through her film and in Marker’s. In scaremongering headlines and newsreels, as graffiti along the street, in children’s drawings, on posters as part of national celebrations, little is needed to evoke the mythos of Castro than a beard and a hat. At times, he seems like a passing character in Salut. Except for the ‘wings of stone’ scene: it features Castro against a textured stone wall, with ambiguous shadows marking out a pattern akin to angel's wings. There’s a hint of irony in this sequence, especially when Castro is compared to American movie star Gary Cooper, although a certain naive romance is present too, especially when his speeches are shown. When he’s quoted saying ‘our country is a guinea-pig for Latin American revolution’, you can feel Varda’s shared optimism.
The photographs that compile the ‘wings of stone’ scene were shot during Varda’s impromptu meeting with Castro, in a small garden by an old restaurant and tavern near the water. Varda was accompanied by two Cuban officials, no guards appeared to be present. Their meeting was positive, even casual. She introduced herself as a French photographer who was making a documentary about Cuba. He was friendly, welcoming. She briefly explained her ambitions for the project, and said she was interested in him, in his persona. Mostly, he talked about spearfishing and fishing equipment: “he was a fanatic about it. He told me that in France and Italy, there were better underwater guns and that one of the latest models would have made him happy... I didn't have that in my photographer's bag! All the same, he had a gigantic project: to save his country from colonialism, to have a socialist project. He really wanted freedom, justice for all, the development of the country.”
They would move over to a small garden near the restaurant. Varda had spotted two bulking stones of unequal size. She asked him to sit in front of them and to pose. It was instinctual, immediate, but she felt something important had been captured. “I said to myself: it's incredible, he's a utopian, an idealist, that's obvious. He has a wonderful project and maybe he won't fly away. This portrait, it really is ‘Castro with wings of stone’.”