The 1990s were a time of dramatic transformation for Cuba. With the
collapse of its Cold War relationship with the Soviet Union, the
island nation plummeted into an era of scarcity and uncertainty
known as the Special Period, a time from which it emerged only
slowly in the new century.
On Location in Cuba views these
pivotal decades through the lens of cinema. Ann Marie Stock
conducted hundreds of interviews and conversations in Cuba to
examine individual artists' lives and creative output--including
film, video, and audiovisual art. She explores the impact of the
Cold War's end, the economic crisis that ensued, and the
decentralization of the state's political, economic, and cultural
apparatus.
Stock focuses on what she calls Street Filmmaking--the production
of emerging audiovisual artists who work outside the state film
industry--to examine the island's transformation and changing
notions of Cuban identity. Employing entrepreneurial approaches to
producing art and to negotiating the exigencies of globalization,
this younger generation of filmmakers offers fresh perspectives on
what it means to be Cuban in an increasingly complex and connected
world.