Ep. 116 — Cuban and Puerto Rican Cinema's Political Lens with Dr. Pedro Noel Doreste Rodríguez

In the mid-20th century Caribbean, cinema became a powerful tool for nation-building, education, and political messaging through two remarkable organizations with surprisingly parallel methods but divergent ideologies. Dr. Pedro Noel Doreste Rodríguez joins us for this enchanting history in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

The story begins in 1949 when Puerto Rico established the Division of Community Education (DIVEDCO), creating films that taught rural communities practical skills while reinforcing cultural identity within the island's complicated relationship with the United States. Ten years later, revolutionary Cuba founded the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC), similarly using cinema to educate citizens but through an explicitly socialist lens. Both organizations deployed mobile cinema units, bringing film to remote villages alongside community discussions and educational programs. These weren't Hollywood productions seeking profit, but state-sponsored projects with clear political objectives.

Perhaps most surprising is Cuba's relationship with American cinema despite the US embargo. The ICAIC organized pirated screenings of films like The Godfather, viewing them as critiques of American capitalism rather than threats to revolutionary values. This openness to global cinema influences, filtered through a revolutionary perspective, helped shape Cuba's enduring film tradition. What can these remarkable cultural experiments teach us about the power of cinema as both art and political instrument? The answer lies in understanding how these films didn't just entertain audiences—they helped shape Caribbean identities during one of the region's most transformative periods.

Pedro Noel Doreste Rodríguez is Assistant Professor in Film Studies at Michigan State University and Co-Director of the Manchineel Project. He is a historian of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx film and media whose research surveys cinematic encounters between the global North and South, diasporic and exile filmmaking, and avant-garde film cultures in and of the Hispanic Caribbean. He is coeditor of the anthology "Vivirse la película: Methods in Puerto Rican Film Studies," forthcoming from Centro Press.

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