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Since 1959, the Cuban state has invested in the celebrated Film Institute (ICAIC) supporting some of Latin America's most acclaimed works in fictional film and documentary, including Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968) and Por primera vez (1967). The short documentary Por primera vez captures the country's commitment to cinema, and the far-reaches of the ICAIC, as the film observes the experience of rural audiences watching a film for the first time. The endearing images and interviews show the rural community as innocent, simple, and passive.
Despite the success of the groundbreaking films like Por primera vez, researchers have revealed that focusing primarily on the state's centralized Havana-based ICAIC Film Institute does not represent the vastness of Cuban filmmaking (Arcos, Diéguez, Farrell, García Borrero, and Stock). This article further expands the discussion of filmmaking beyond both the ICAIC and Havana by examining the children's national film initiative Cámara Chica, which began in 2013. In particular, I focus on one specific, active and celebrated branch of the collective in La Conchita, Pinar del Río Province, in western Cuba. With an analysis of the role of Cámara Chica in La Conchita community, we see how these young filmmakers challenge the representation of Por primera vez's passive rural audience members watching urban film, and even use their works for critical audiovisual journalism, as we see in their short film 7у 50 (2015).
I show that the Cámara Chica initiative, while new, creates a dialogue with Cuba's film past with both the Por primera vez documentary as the rural young children tell their own stories, and takes part in a dialogue with Julio Garcia Espinosa's Cuban film manifesto "Por un cine imperfecto" (1969). Finally, I explore how Cámara Chica is represented by others in Daniel Munoz's making-of documentary Tras la lente de la Cámara Chica (2016) respecting the young filmmakers' agency in the creative process. I conclude that Cámara Chica's and Muñoz's works highlight the interconnected web between state institutions, national funding for local initiatives, film schools, and rural organizations, which embody Cuban contemporary audiovisual realities as well as create a dialogue with Cuba's film past in the contemporary Cuban audiovisual landscape.
