The Cinema of Sara Gomez: Reframing Revolution

Throughout the 1960s until her untimely death in 1974, Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gomez engaged directly and courageously with the social, political, economic, and cultural transformations promised by the Cuban Revolution.

Gomez directed numerous documentary films in 10 prolific years. She also made De cierta manera (One way or another), her only feature-length film. Her films navigate complex experiences of social class, race, and gender by reframing revolutionary citizenship, cultural memory, and political value. Not only have her inventive strategies become foundational to new Cuban cinema and feminist film culture, but they also continue to inspire media artists today who deal with issues of identity and difference. The Cinema of Sara Gomez assembles history, criticism, biography, methodology, and theory of Gomez’s work in scholarly writing; interviews with friends and collaborators; the film script of De cierta manera; and a detailed and complete filmography.

Featuring striking images, this anthology reorients how we tell Cuban cinema history and how we think about the intersections of race, gender, and revolution. By addressing Gomez’s entire body of work, The Cinema of Sara Gomez unpacks her complex life and gives weight to her groundbreaking cinema.