Activismo: Art & Dissidence in Cuba

This film project—Activismo: Art & Dissidence in Cuba—is the culmination of the directors’ combined professional pursuits. As avid travelers on working trips, Philip Sugden and Carole Elchert were committed to fostering in university students the “world wisdom” that can be obtained by travel experiences. As educators, Sugden and Elchert promoted the essential balance of creative and critical thinking in their coursework but observed a disturbing decline in both for other educational emphases. As exhibiting artists, they were drawn to the worldwide efforts of artists’ whose work was provocative, controversial—recognizing the transformative function of Art and necessity of activism and dissidence in societies. Thus, their personal histories lead them to create the 2015 Havana, Cuba, trip to interview some of Cuba’s most prominent activist artists working for artistic freedom and social change, including Tania Bruguera, Jose Toirac, and Jose Vincench. For eight days, the filming team—Jason Baker and Alex Goetz gathering video footage and still photography by Carole Elchert and Philip Sugden—managed to obtain 15 hours of video of cultural sites as well as artists’ studios with artwork and historic interviews.

From 2016 for four years, the production team of Philip Sugden, writer Carole Elchert, and filmmaker Jason Baker worked with the five artists’ interviews that included Cuban artists living in the US (photographer Geandy Pavon, multi-media artist Juan Si Gonzales) and scholars of Cuban Art—Elvis Fuentes & Rachel Weiss—who explained the historical relationship of Cuban history and politics with the activism and dissidence largely channeled through Art today. The soundtrack composed by Grammy nominee Tim Story reflects both the vibrancy of the Cuban culture and the tone of its courageous artists, who are notable for street performances and civic engagement in what they called “artivism.” At 45 minutes, this film conveys the critical and creative thinking exhibited, explained, and extolled by Cuban artists in their artwork and their individual visions of how Art can transform. In all aspects of the film—text, quotes, interviews, news reports, historical information—the focus of production phase was Activismo’s educational, artistic, historic, aesthetic value as well as its capacity to reveal a coherent story for viewers’ appreciation.

Finally, once the Activismo film is reviewed and recognized at film festivals, the distribution phase must extend the viability of Art Activism to the widest possible audience: to students of art; to museums and galleries whose purpose is to disseminate artwork that exemplifies progressive visions; and most importantly, in the current state of international unrest, to those groups, countries, and activists worldwide who utilize protest, dissidence, and public engagement in their efforts to obtain freedom of expression, social justice, or democratic reforms. The content is not only timely for addressing social-political problems creatively, but is also instructive as an educational tool for individuals, schools, universities that wish to promote the visible, viable possibilities of critical thinking, art activism, practical dissidence. Thus, Carole Elchert will offer Public Presentations and workshops to educational institutions with the Activismo film and other project materials (artist interviews). Major exhibits of participating Cuban artists may be scheduled along with public screening of the film on a promotion schedule. Promotion might include overseas venues, esp. a major event at Tania Bruguera’s Institute for Civic Actions, dedicated to Hannah Arendt, in Havana, Cuba, with ongoing international workshops that extend the purpose of the film to a worldwide civic engagement and activism on the ground.