Habana Cuba 20062025

In 2006 I was invited to Cuba to show part of my “City Symphony Series” as a side bar to the LatinoAmericano Cine Del Nuevo Internacional Festival. This was my first time going to Cuba. Subsequently I have been part of the Festival and traveling to Cuba for 13 years. I brought my 16mm Bolex down to film.

The color negative stock was old and had been X-rayed in the States, X-rayed in Mexico and then X-rayed again in Cuba. As a result the film was fogged. I was tempted to throw the material away however realized that the fog added to the aesthetics.

At this time Fidel ordered more than 100 hundred black flags with a white star to be hung near the Melacon. These flags served as two purposes. First of all they block the scrolling messages that were constantly being directed towards the Cubans as propaganda. The flags also represented the Cubans who died at the Bay of Pigs and other American adventures into Cuba.

"In 2006, Angerame was invited to Havana, Cuba, to present his City Symphony Series at the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana, which marked the beginning of his 13-year collaboration with the festival as a programmer. HABANA CUBA 2006 is a record of that visit, tracing Havana in Fidel Castro’s final year as Cuban leader and the ongoing propaganda war between the U.S. and Cuba. X-rayed at several airports, an old color negative stock adds a new texture to the image, illuminating Havana as a city of fascinating contrasts, one with few ties to the outside world where time stands still." –Kornelia Boczkowska

Music “Los Guaracheros De Oriente from Putumayo, Cuban Natcional Anthem,
and “Missle Crisis” by Kevin Barnard. Sound Design by Kevin Barnard.