GUANABACOA: CRÓNICA DE MI FAMILIA

Year1966 Duration13 min. DirectorSara Gómez WriterSara Gómez PhotographyJosé Tabío, Luis Marzoa Production Eduardo Rivero, Jesús Pascau, ICAIC

A pioneer in the genre of autobiographical documentaries, this film made by the renowned Cuban director Sara Gómez explores her family roots to offer a family portrait through photos, popular music, and women’s tales. It is also a powerful document of an age and a way of living: that of middle- or upper-class black families in Cuba, meeting in exclusive bars just before the Cuban Revolution.

Sara Gómez

Sara Gómez (Havana, 1943) started working at the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) in 1961, making some of the first contributions to Enciclopedia Popular. With Agnès Varda she shot Salut les cubains. She was still working as an assistant director when she began making her own documentaries. Most of her work focuses on popular culture and tradition, crime, racism, and women. Ms Gómez was the first woman filmmaker in the Cuban film industry, and she was the only woman director to make a feature film before 1974, the year of her death.

Selected filmography
Plaza Vieja (1962)
El solar (1962)
1964
Iré a Santiago (1964)
... Y tenemos sabor (1967)
En la otra isla (1968)
Poder local, poder popular (1970)
Un documental a propósito del tránsito (1971)
De bateyes (1972)

Sobre horas extras y trabajo voluntario (1973)