Gloria Rolando was born in Cuba  where she developed a career in making films about the Afro-Cuban experience. Her films span across 35 years at the Cuban national film institute.   

 

Gloria will be in NY for the ADIFF presenting five of her films as part of ADIFF's special program BLACKS IN LATIN AMERICA sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture.  

 

 

1912, Breaking the Silence is a project dedicated to the history of the Party of the Independents of Color (PIC), a political party established in Cuba in 1908 to represents the interest of  Afro-Cubans.

 

This three parts documentary seeks to cover some antecedents in the history of Afro-Cubans' struggle for self-determination, a necessary recapitulation which goes step by step down the path of resistance taken by the Black movement in Cuba since colonial times, the struggle for independence and the situation of Black Cubans once the island of Cuba achieved its independence in 1902. References are made to significant, Black leaders in Cuba from the nineteenth century, such as Juan Gualberto Gomez and Martin Morua Delgado, Antonio Maceo and Quintin Banderas.

 

Spanish, English subtitles

---

 

Gloria Rolando relates the patakin or mythical story of Oggun, the tireless warrior who, enamored of his mother, decided as punishment to imprison himself in the mountains. Only Ochun, goddess of love, succeeded in captivating him when she let fall a few drops of honey on the lips of the god of metal, war, progress, and civilization. Oggun is the first effort of the team later to be known as Images of the Caribbean, now chartered as an independent video group.  

 

Spanish, English subtitles

---

NY Premiere  

An Evening with Gloria Rolando 

 

 

This is a documentary on Haitians immigrants in Cuba who were sent back in the beginning of the last century when the sugar market crashed and they became unwanted.  

 

Spanish, English subtitles