Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier

An experimental short-length ethnographic film about the cyclical and spontaneous life activities that emerge at nighttime in Guantánamo, Cuba. The film engages with the sensory aspect of practices associated with the night in Cuba, from the post-revolutionary guard sessions of neighborhood night watching, to nocturnal activities related to technology, media infrastructure, and nighttime economy. When the night falls in Guantánamo and invades the streets, other forms of life emerge. GUARDIANS OF THE NIGHT sheds light on the people, activities, sites and ideas that occur on an everyday basis at night time in Eastern Cuba.

As a result of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), many French settlers travelled to Eastern Cuba with African enslaved people to escape the revolt. The Tumba Francesa Societies, which were known as a brotherhood and a mutual aid network, emerged from these waves of slave migrations. Eventually, they became integral constituents of Cuban culture. La Tumba Mambi is a docu-fiction film based on the Tumba Francesa, La Caridad de Oriente, which is located in the city of Santiago de Cuba. Through the Society's youngest member, Flavio, who is collecting information about the Tumba Francesa for a school project, we meet his grand-mother Andrea and mother Queli, two charismatic knowledge keepers of their rich cultural traditions. The original film soundtrack composed and produced by Cuban based DJ Jigüe, in collaboration with Tumba Francesa members, is a rhythmic and striking reminder that the present is grounded in a history of struggles for freedom.

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