Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Original negative
of the Noticiero ICAIC
Latinoamericano
Inscribed 2009
What is it
A collection of historical newsreels produced in Cuba.
Why was it inscribed
The newsreels are the most comprehensive record of the
history of the Cuban Revolution. They also represent a
unique view of wider events such as the world’s growing
bipolarization, the independence wars of African colonies
and other popular uprisings.
Where is it
Cinemateca de Cuba, Havana, Cuba
The Cuban Institute on Cinematographic Arts and Industry
(ICAIC) was the first cultural institution created after the
Cuban Revolution, in March 1959. In those days of fervent
revolutionary change, cinema was widely understood
to be a powerful medium of communication. The law that
created ICAIC proclaimed the new Cuban cinema to be
‘the most powerful and suggestive medium of artistic
expression, and the most direct and extended vehicle
of education’.
With these two purposes in sight – artistic expression and
education – ICAIC produced a Latin American newsreel
every week from 1960 to 1990. It gave Cuban (and Latin
American viewers in other countries) news about local
and world events, making them participants in their
own history and creating a climate for debate over the
construction of the new country that was emerging.
As a record of the Cuban political process these newsreels
are part of the world’s archives, as the most comprehensive
record of the history of the Cuban Revolution during its
most vibrant period. Their significance, however, extends
far beyond the local. They cover the development of the
whole of Latin America in that period, and there are many
episodes dealing with world events seen from a Latin
American viewpoint.
� Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba 1959.
The newsreels are held by the Cinemateca de Cuba
(Cuban Film Archive) which also looked after short and
feature-length fiction films, documentaries, cartoons
and other reports produced in Cuba, as well as many
Latin American films threatened by the dictatorships
of the 60s and 70s. Besides safeguarding them, the
Cinemateca de Cuba also duplicated the films that it
considered important, subtitling then distributing them
to other Latin American film archives.
Production of the newsreels ended when the Cuban
economic crisis began to bite in 1990. There were also
extensive blackouts caused by electricity shortages in the
1990s, which were a great blow to film preservation: the
air conditioning and humidity control equipment, vital to
film conservation, as well as the duplication, restoration
and revision works were practically paralyzed due to lack
of resources. The film archives of the Cinemateca de Cuba,
which up to that moment had represented a model for
Latin America, stopped being a safe haven.
Deprived of the necessary materials to carry on what
constitutes a daily battle to preserve moving images in
tropical countries, the mission of the Cinemateca de Cuba
was further worsened by the hurricanes that uncovered
some of its depots. At this point, important images like
those chronicling Che Guevara’s journey to the Republic
of Congo were in danger of disappearing forever.
That they are now more safely preserved is a vital step
to ensuring that the unique experience of the Cuban
Revolution as witnessed by its protagonists can be more
widely known.
Original negative of the Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano 519