''Cuba and the Cameraman'' is a 2017 American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

written, directed and co-produced by

Jon Alpert Jon Alpert (born c. December 13, 1948) is an American journalist and documentary film, documentary film director, filmmaker, known for his use of a cinéma vérité approach in his films. Life and career A native of Port Chester, New York, Jo ...

. The film is a

Netflix Original Netflix is an American global Internet streaming-on-demand media provider that has distributed a number of original streaming television shows, including original series, specials, miniseries, documentaries and films. Netflix's original produ ...

and was first shown at the

74th Venice International Film Festival The 74th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 30 August to 9 September 2017, at Venice Lido in Italy. American actress Annette Bening was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actor Alessandro Borghi hosted ...

Synopsis

The film shows

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

over a course of 45 years through the lens of

Production

Alpert started visiting Cuba in the 70's. After founding the

Downtown Community Television Center The Downtown Community Television Center or DCTV is a community media center located in the former Engine Company 31 firehouse on Lafayette Street in the Civic Center of Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1972 by spouses documentary film ...

, he became increasingly interested in Cuba's policies. He said: "We heard that

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

was implementing the social programs that we were fighting for here in New York”. The film was edited from over 1,000 hours of footage, Alpert filmed since the first time he visited Cuba.

Reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned a score of 82 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim".

Glenn Kenny Glenn Kenny (born August 8, 1959) is an American film critic and journalist. He writes for ''The New York Times'' and '' RogerEbert.com''. Biography Kenny attended William Paterson University, where he majored in English literature.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

wrote: "In part because of its political blind spots, “Cuba and the Cameraman” is captivating. (Whatever you think of Mr. Alpert’s perspective, it’s interesting.) But it’s mostly worth watching because of human stories like these." David Ehrlich from IndieWire gave the film a B+ and stated: "If only Alpert had been a bit less genial, if only he had dug a little deeper — if only he had either taken himself out of the equation, or gone the other way and been much more introspective about his complicated feelings about Castro — then “Cuba and the Cameraman” could have been more than just a window into a foreign world. But windows are important; without them, we’d never be able to see through our walls. And this is as clear and wide a window as you’re ever likely to find." Sheri Linden from the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

said about the film: "As a decades-long, ground-level portrait of the country, his vibrant film is unprecedented." Neil Young from

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

wrote: "A work of old-school humanism that hovers between pro-Revolutionary fervor and a more objective documentary stance, Cuba and the Cameraman is sustained by the strong bonds of trust which the gregarious Alpert has evidently been able to maintain with Cubans from various echelons of this theoretically classless society."

References

External links

* * * {{Rotten Tomatoes, id=cuba_and_the_cameraman Netflix original documentary films American documentary films 2010s Spanish-language films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films