Overview
- Demonstrates how Cuban film and media was influenced by the political and economic difficulties that followed the end of the Soviet Union
- Analyzes how various stylistic elements and aesthetic modes were used in Cuban films to illustrate the country's experience of late socialism
- Highlights aesthetic elements within films that have continued from the immediate post-revolutionary period to present day
Part of the book series: Global Cinema (GLOBALCINE)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book maps the aesthetic experience of late socialism through Cuban film and media practice. It shows how economic and material scarcity as well as political uncertainty is expressed aesthetically in films from the period following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a characteristic described as imperfect aesthetics. The films examined in the book draw attention to the unique temporal experience of late socialism, a period marked both by rapid change and frustrating stasis, nostalgia for Cuba’s past and anxiousness about its future. Aesthetic modes such as melodrama and irony, and stylistic elements such as direct address and the long take, communicate the temporal experience of late socialism in Cuba, where new global traffic and a globalizing economy co-exist with iconic socialist features of the Cuban revolution. Film aesthetics constitute an important public dimension within this context, serving as a site of political and cultural critique amidst political uncertainty. In examining large-scale international co-productions as well as regional film collectives and amateur media making, the book traces the aesthetic continuities between contemporary film practices and those of the immediate post-revolutionary period, showing how the Cuban revolution continues to be an important touchstone for contemporary Cuban filmmakers in the face of new and imminent change.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Nicholas Balaisis is a postdoctoral fellow at the Critical Media Lab, Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo, Canada. His work has been published in such journals as Cinema Journal, Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Cineaction, and Public: Art, Culture, Ideas.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Cuban Film Media, Late Socialism, and the Public Sphere
Book Subtitle: Imperfect Aesthetics
Authors: Nicholas Balaisis
Series Title: Global Cinema
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58431-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-59036-7Published: 08 December 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-95489-6Published: 30 April 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-58431-1Published: 07 December 2016
Series ISSN: 2634-5951
Series E-ISSN: 2634-596X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 201
Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations, 19 illustrations in colour
Topics: Latin American Cinema and TV, Latin American Culture, Latin American Politics, Film History, Media and Communication