Fidel Castro
This documentary explores the mystery surrounding the death of movie icon Marilyn Monroe through previously unheard interviews with her inner circle.
A documentary on the career of Beth Carvalho, the Brazilian singer who became a well known samba legend from the 1970s onwards, edited together from hundreds of hours of footage and audio files kept (and partially recorded) by Carvalho herself during her lifetime.
Havana, Cuba, 1990. René González, an airplane pilot, unexpectedly flees the country, leaving behind his wife Olga and his daughter Irma, and begins a new life in Miami, where he becomes a member of an anti-Castro organization.
The incredible story of Chop Chop Chang, a world famous circus chimpanzee who is secretly trained by the CIA into a deadly assassin.
Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.
According to the official Cuban version, Fidel Castro died on his bed on November 25, 2016. Sixty years after his arrival on the island, with his troop of guerrillas who came to fight the Batista dictatorship, the director went to meet Cubans who talk about the Lider Maximo, who escaped - according to rumor - more than 630 assassination attempts! For his funeral, Fidel Castro had orchestrated a spectacular procession before his death so that his ashes crossed the island on the same route - in reverse - that he carried out when he was young.
Historic footage and leading voices of the era examine the "Bobby Phenomenon" of the 1960s and the legacy of the man who helped redefine the country.
In 1975, Ryszard Kapuściński, a veteran Polish journalist, embarked on a seemingly suicidal road trip into the heart of the Angola's civil war. There, he witnessed once again the dirty reality of war and discovered a sense of helplessness previously unknown to him. Angola changed him forever: it was a reporter who left Poland, but it was a writer who returned.
This revealing portrait of Cuba follows the lives of Fidel Castro and three Cuban families affected by his policies over the last four decades.
The story of Elián Gonzalez, a five-year-old Cuban boy plucked from the Florida Straits, and how the fight for his future changed the course of U.S.-Cuba relations. Featuring personal testimony, interviews, and a news archive, this documentary recounts Elián’s remarkable rescue on Thanksgiving Day in 1999, after his mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba perished at sea, and the custody battle between the boy’s Cuban father and his Miami-based relatives.
For twenty-three years, five western nations, members of the Soviet bloc and two superpowers were locked into a war never formally declared. It all began in 1966. Once the Draft started, every able-bodied white South African male was called up for service.
Half blind and half deaf, ostraziced Cuban writer Rafael Alcides tries to finish his unpublished novels to discover that after several decades, the home made ink from the typewriter he used to write them has faded. The Cuban revolution as a love story and eventual deception is seen through the eyes of a man who is living an inner exile.
Two Meetings and a Funeral explores Bangladesh’s historical pivot from the socialism of the 1973 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting in Algeria to its ideological counterpoint, the emergence of a strong Islamic perspective at the 1974 Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) meeting in Lahore. Centred on Bangladesh’s navigation of these two historic meetings, as well as its fight for United Nations recognition (vetoed by China, acting as a proxy for Pakistan), the film considers the erosion of the idea of the Third World as a potential space for decolonialism, liberation theology and socialism. In particular, it looks at how a transnational Islamic ‘ummah’ concept was used against socialist forces.
Fidel Castro, the former President of Cuba and one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century, passed away in November. He famously claimed that "history will absolve me", but will it? This special film considers Castro and his legacy.
The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was a rabid anti-Communist and a staunch ally of the United States. But that did not keep him from forging a friendship with a Communist nation that was America's sworn enemy: Fidel Castro's Cuba. The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was a rabid anti-Communist and a staunch ally of the United States. But that did not keep him from forging a friendship with a Communist nation that was America's sworn enemy: Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Celia Sánchez Manduley (1920 - 1980) was a Cuban revolutionary, politician, researcher and archivist. She was a very close friend of Fidel Castro. She joined the struggle against the Batista government following the coup of March 10, 1952. She was the founder of the 26th of July Movement in Manzanillo. Together with Frank País, she was one of the first women to assemble a combat squad during the revolution.
After directing two documentaries on Fidel Castro in 2002 ("Comandante") and 2003 ("Looking for Fidel"), filmmaker Oliver Stone returned to interview Castro in 2009 for the first in-depth conversation since Castro had stepped down as president and recovered from colon surgery. In this new film, Castro is interviewed at home, surrounded by his family. The stimulating conversation is friendly and casual, as Castro offers his perspective on current leaders such as President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as controversial events such as the coup in Honduras, upheaval in Iran, and the collapse of the Soviet Union's effect on the Cuban economic model. Castro also reflects on some of the defining moments of his life during the last 50 years, including John F. Kennedy's assassination and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The film tells the story of Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the wealthiest municipality in Latin America, located in the North of Mexico. He presents himself as a polemical figure who takes justice into his own hands in order to "clean" his municipality of the drug cartels' presence. Mauricio is a key character to better understand the present situation in Mexico and through the unusual views of this politician, the audience will be a privileged witnesses of an scenario where political tasks and excessive violence mingle with one another.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Soviet Navy officer Vasily Arkhipov refused to launch a nuclear strike and saved the world from nuclear war and total destruction.
An intellectual leaves the Cuban revolution and 'underdevelopment' behind only to find himself at odds with the ambiguities of his new life in the 'developed' world. A portrait of alienation, of an outsider with no clear-cut politics or ideology. A stranger in a strange land struggling with old age, sexual desire and ultimately the impossibility for the individual to belong in any society. The film's narrative is a collage of flashbacks, daydreams, and hallucinations comprising live-action, animation, and newsreel footage assembled to suggest the way personal memory works, subjectively and emotionally.
President Salvador Allende's topple from Chile's unstable government and the CIA's involvement in the September Coup that would turn the South American socialist country into a dictatorship.
Based on the book by Gerald S. Blaine With Lisa McCubbin "The Kennedy Detail", this documentary interviews the men who served on President JFK's Secret Service Detail and their memories of the man, president, and perceptions of Camelot. Some of these men were there on the fateful day when life changed on the streets of Dallas, TX in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd, 1963.
Through the voice of an impersonator, the cuban hero will recount with us his political career. This tender, caustic yet authentic portrait will take us through his life from euphoria to revolt, from hollow laugh to genuine cheerfulness. Here comes... "En la Piel de Fidel".
A road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media's misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents.
The story of Tasmanian-born actor Errol Flynn whose short & flamboyant life, full of scandals, adventures, loves and excess was largely played out in front of the camera - either making movies or filling the newsreels and gossip magazines. Tragically he was dead from the effects of drugs and alcohol by the time he was only 50 & the myths live on. But there is another side of Flynn that is less well known - his ambitions to be a serious writer and newspaper correspondent, his documentary films and his interest in the Spanish Civil War and Castro's Cuba
A new investigative documentary exploring the controversies surrounding the assassination of Bobby Kennedy on June 5, 1968 as he looked set to challenge Nixon for the White House. Munir Sirhan tells how his brother Sirhan has never been able to remember the shooting. Sandra Serrano speaks for the first time in forty years about the girl in the polka-dot dress fleeing the scene, yelling "We shot him! We shot him!" And Dr. Herbert Spiegel of Columbia University describes how Sirhan was hypnotically programmed to kill Robert Kennedy.
Prior to Fidel Castro's reign, Cuba was open to immigration. However, once Castro proclaimed himself dictator of Cuba, one of the largest exodus recorded began, one that continues today, 47 years after the Cuban Revolution. Six central characters of the film discuss in detail their personal experiences through Operation Pedro Pan, the Freedom Flights, El Mariel, the Rafter Crisis, and the Cuban Visa Lottery.
Eyewitnesses, including Castro himself, look back on the period of resistance and the toppling of Batista's dictatorship. By zooming in on the individual within the collective, the detailed story of the revolution unfolds. In the oral tradition, various Cubans report on oppression, violence, arrests, kidnappings, shootouts, escapes, the guerrilla fight from the mountains and the subsequent triumphant entry into Havana. Their stories are interspersed with archive footage and pictures showing the beauty of contemporary Cuba. In this film, the revolutionary generation muses on the situation on the island 47 years after the heroic revolution.
Dollan Cannell's documentary on the hundreds of alleged plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, and a look at the evolution of Cuban politics. If the title of this extraordinary film sounds ludicrous, don't be fooled. This film looks at the incredible story of the 638 alleged plots by the CIA and Cuban exiles to kill the Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
A man living in the USA is nauseated by the media power and Consumerism, decides to go to Cuba with the intention of meeting Fidel Castro. The man is looking for revolution and socialism for a better future for everybody... But he finds a different Cuba from what he thought. Nostalgic, sad, tired of a strong prohibitionist, and of a shortage of speaking and thinking freedom, for a difficult human situation (before a politic idea).
Contemporary film critics regard the epic film I Am Cuba as a modern masterpiece. The 1964 Cuban/Soviet coproduction marked a watershed moment of cultural collaboration between two nations. Yet the film never found a mass audience, languishing for decades until its reintroduction as a "classic" in the 1990s. Vicente Ferraz explores the strange history of this cinematic tour de force, and the deeper meaning for those who participated in its creation.
A documentary about the life of Errol Flynn, with recollections from friends and family.
Oliver Stone's second documentary on/interview with Fidel Castro specifically addresses his country's recent crackdown on Cuban dissidents; namely, the execution of three men who hijacked a ferry to the United States.
Using archival footage, United States Cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the 85-year-old Robert McNamara, THE FOG OF WAR depicts his life, from working as a WWII whiz kid military officer, to being the Ford Motor Company's president, to managing the American Vietnam War, as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
Swedish documentary film on consumerism and globalization, created by director Erik Gandini and editor Johan Söderberg. It looks at the arguments for capitalism and technology, such as greater efficiency, more time and less work, and argues that these are not being fulfilled, and they never will be. The film leans towards anarcho-primitivist ideology and argues for "a simple and fulfilling life".
The story of Cuban refugees who risked their lives in homemade rafts to reach the United States, and what life is like for those who succeed.
On Nov. 22, 1963 the world was shocked by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The mystery surrounding this history-changing event has led to many unanswered questions.
Profiles the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro at political middle age. The Cuban leader reflects on his life and Cuba — past, present and future – and declares his continuing faith in communism. In numerous other interviews, including encounters with people on the streets, Cuban citizens voice their pro and con feelings about the revolution and Cuban society.
"The CIA's War Against Cuba" - a briefing of the past ten years of CIA activities in Cuba, and the agents and other staff involved by the Dirección General de Inteligencia (DGI). DGI executed a parade of CIA agents active in Cuba, technology used, arms caches, journalists and other correspondents involved in intelligence tasks. This action was taken by Fidel Castro when his top agent Florention Aspillaga defected to the US via their embassy in Vienna, which immediately was followed by more defections and disclosure of so-called double agents. "La guerra de la CIA contra Cuba" was being broadcasted in 11 episodes.
In 1985, Miguel Littin returned clandestinely to Chile and made this documentary divided in four parts about the political reality of the country. The parts are titled, Miguel Littin: Clandestine in Chile; The North of Chile: When I Fled to the Pampa; From the Frontier to the Interior of Chile in Flames; and Allende: the Time of History, the film features testimony from Garcia Marquez, Fidel Castro and Hortensia Bussi. Also shown is the Chile of Augusto Pinochet and Salvador Allende. When Littin returned to Spain and finished his work, Gabriel Garcia Marquez set out to write the story of the film, published under the title Clandestine in Chile: the Adventures of Miguel Littin, which quickly became a best seller.
The story of the persecution of homosexuals and intellectuals in Cuba under Fidel Castro's dictatorship, from the beginning of the Cuban Revolution until the early 1980s. Interviews with relevant personalities of Cuban culture who suffered persecution demonstrate that concentration camps for gays existed in Cuba.
Alvarez' longest documentary examination of the Cuban Revolution, this contains exceptional interviews with Fidel, Raúl, Almeida, Vilma, Haydee, Celia and Faustino Perez, among other key players in the Revolution.
'A CBS Reports documentary hosted by Bill Moyers This program examines Cuban exile terrorists living in Miami. These terrorists were secretly trained and employed by the U.S. government in the early 1960s to fight Fidel Castro. Now, without U.S. support, terrorist activities continue in Miami and Latin America. The program reviews secret U.S. policies toward Cuba in the 1960s and includes interviews with Castro and former top CIA officials. Members of this group, formerly secretly trained and employed by U.S. Government until 1967, have been active in Watergate crimes and anti-Castro terrorism including bomb explosion on Cuban Airline killing seventy-three. Includes interviews with Castro, E. Howard Hunt, Bernard Barker, and Rolando Martinez.' - The Paley Center For Media
Follows the Cuban leader into the home of a 93 year old acquaintance of Jose Marti, who is now blind and who takes the duration of the film to realize who his illustrious interviewer actually is.
Filmmaker Barbet Schroeder shows the Ugandan dictator meeting his Cabinet, reviewing his troops, explaining his ideology.
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)
In November 1971, Salvador Allende and Fidel Castro chat to each other about revolution, imperialism, oligarchy, underdevelopment, cultural dependency and economics.
The battle for the 10 million ton sugar crop and the already legendary autocritique of Fidel Castro.
An impassioned three-part documentary of the liberation struggle waged throughout Latin America, using Argentina as a historical example of the imperialist exploitation of the continent. Part I: Neo-Colonialism and Violence is a historical, geographic, and economic analysis of Argentina. Part II: An Act For Liberation examines the ten-year reign of Juan Perón (1945-55) and the activities of the Peronist movement after his fall from power. Part III: Violence and Liberation studies the role of violence in the national liberation process and constitutes a call for action.
In seven different parts, Godard, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais and Varda show their sympathy for the North-Vietnamees army during the Vietnam-war.
In Asamblea general (1960), the documentary about Fidel's address of the First Declaration of Havana in the Plaza of the Revolution, Alea practises what becomes a sustaining Cuban contribution to documentary. Engaging with Free Cinema and cinema-vérité, his camera seems to touch the faces of the new citizen one by one rather than as a single mass before a leader.
Castro has outlived generations of US Presidents, Soviet General Secretaries, CIA Directors and would-be assassins. This film offers a psychological profile of the Cuban revolutionary, and a deeply intimate account of his life based on private letters, correspondence, speeches and interviews. It features interviews with some of Fidel Castro's closest relatives, close friends and committed enemies.
Host/narrator James Earl Jones explores the island of Cuba, introduces the viewer to the Cuban people and discusses the uncertainty of the country's future.
