1975 Directed by Michael Rubbo
This feature-length documentary from 1974 takes viewers inside Fidel Castro's Cuba. A movie-making threesome hope that Fidel himself will star in their film. The unusual crew consists of former Newfoundland premier Joseph Smallwood, radio and TV owner Geoff Stirling and NFB film director Michael Rubbo. What happens while the crew awaits its star shows a good deal of the new Cuba, and also of the three Canadians who chose to film the island. (NFB)
USA
Source: New York Times
USA
Fascinating portrait of how a film crew spearheaded by an ardent and skeptical individualist find all of the answers they’re looking for through a society of proletariats who understand that their newfound autonomy is predicated on their level of education, rendering moot the need for Fidel to speak to these people directly and answer the questions the people themselves are answering already. The mental gymnastics or chauvinism on display reach comedic levels when the contradictions pile up and frustration boils over as soon as preconceived notions are constantly disproven with no where to look for support. Not even from their own countrymen. Leaving the men who find their racist and classist views of what development mean, literally, standing on their own heads. Kudos to Rubbo for accentuating the hypocrisy and absurdism that fuels free-market thinking in the form of a man who wears brown leather jackets in the middle of Havana.
It's a great setup. You place a left-wing Australian filmmaker, a prominent Canadian socialist and a Newfoundland capitalist in a Cuban villa for two weeks. The punchline? They're waiting for an interview which never happens.
Premises like this bear the danger of slipping into meaninglessness, becoming about nothing but their own nothingness. In Waiting for Fidel, the crew explore the fascinating concrete land of Communist Cuba. In their downtime they're arguing about politics, and continually planning for the interview with Fidel. Frankly, I adore it.
In the absolute spirit of documentary filmmaking, director Michael Rubbo travels to Cuba with an exceedingly clear goal - it all goes to shit - and he makes a film about everything but. His work is this - my favourite documentary.
(Tied with The White Diamond :D / This film is available for free on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT_TmGgNB_o)
"Waiting for Fidel" is, on the surface, a fascinating view of the Castro regime, but the film's semi-comedic arguments between Joey Smallwood and Geoff Stirling provide the film with it's most memorable and entertaining aspects.
this movie portrays geoff stirling as a complete fucking psycho and still doesn't scratch the surface of how nuts he was
God grant me the patience of a Cuban professor of socialist science having communism explained to him by a right-wing radio personality from Newfoundland.
Watched on NFB.ca
This was actually so brilliant. Making something solid and provocative from nothing is no small feat!
I don’t know enough about Castro and Cuba to offer any sort of enlightenment on the political side of things, but I thought it was really interesting. It’s also beautifully shot. Overall it’s a good representation of contrasting ideologies coming together to find some semblance of middle ground.
a skittish viewing bc of the cold so i didnt pay proper attention but things of note in this film where a capitalist and a socialist (who are both bourgeois industrialists ftr) from newfoundland visit cuba and never meet fidel but do meet several proud and eloquent workers from education to construction to a psych ward!
the capitalist ends up arguing a lot of anti-work sentiment, as the children work 3 hours a day for free tuition and board. his arguments are often bitterly ironic as an employer who relies on others work, hes derisive of work and seems to describe the cuban system as materialistic. the people interviewed across cuba have a relaxed attitude towards working in service of…
a great work about absence of subject (a phrase i know read recently, not sure where or who, maybe one of you, but it clearly stuck), with lots of great characters, conversations, and reflexivity to accompany the inevitable turn inward
