Octavio Cortázar

In 1967, Cuban documentary filmmaker Octavio Cortazar followed a travelling projectionist troupe whose mission was to show moving pictures to rural communities for the first time. Cortazar’s short film documents one audience’s response to its first film: Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.

The Castro revolution was just consolidating its power when, in 1961, over 100,000 students were sent from their schools into the countryside to teach the peasants there how to read. Coinciding with the Bay of Pigs invasion, in this docudrama, 15-year-old Mario (Salvador Wood) has come to a tiny village in the Zapata swamps and gradually wins the villagers over to his task. At the same time, he receives an education in the realities of rural life from the hard-working peasants.

In an imaginary country in Latin America, a man asks for asylum in an embassy. Trickery, passion, and intrigue are the motives of his actions.

Through the files of Cuban cinema news program Noticieros ICAIC Latinoamericanos, the documentary shows the most relevant events of the second half of the 20th century as seen by the documentary filmmakers of the island. During three decades and under the general direction of Santiago Álvarez, these moviemakers witnessed almost everything: from the shivers of the Cold War to Bola de Nieve's piano solos; from the discovery of the killing fields in Cambodia to the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. In 2009, the original negatives of Noticieros ICAIC Latinoamericanos were declared part of the "world memory" by UNESCO.

Explores the sensuous rhythms and movements of the dance style known as the rumba, as demonstrated by the celebrated Havana rumbero Papá Montero. Blending vintage documentary footage with meticulously staged recreations, the dancer's tragic assassination at Carnival is connected with the passing of a cultural era in Cuban life.

Documentary about the 17th December, the date on which one commemorates St. Lazarus. This occasion is a day of celebration for Cuba, where Catholics and believers of African religion alike make a pilgrimage to El Rincón, outside Havana.

The first film in the Popular Encyclopedia series consists of three stories: 1 – Vision Defects (a popular explanation of nearsightedness and farsightedness); 2 – "Marine Fauna" (with a visit to the national aquarium); 3 – "How a Cartoon Is Made" (a brief description of the process of creating cartoons).

Five young Cubans, ex-revolutionaries, meet after years in Havana during a dancing carnival night.

This popular science film from the Popular Encyclopedia series consists of three stories: 1 – How a Newspaper Is Born (a popular account of the various stages of newspaper development and printing); 2 – "Reptiles" (about the different classes of reptiles and their characteristics); 3 – "Rubén Martínez Villena" (a biography of the poet and revolutionary Rubén Martínez Villena).

The film focuses on a contemporary documentary production company that is attempting to create a non-fiction feature about Papa Montero, a 1930's rumbero who was murdered during Havana's carnival celebrations. The film uses flashback sequences to recreate Papa Montero's celebrated dance and his disastrous involvement in a fatal love triangle. The film features rumba-inspired dance sequences performed in the streets of Havana by El Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba.

Analyzes the typical features of the punto, a Cuban musical tradition from the days of Spanish colonialism.

A squad of young Cuban armed forces recruits are tasked with defending a strategic key north of Cuba. The fraught relationships between the young soldiers and the sergeant who leads them transform as they discover his human qualities during training and learn discipline in the harsh conditions of their post.