Tulane University

Damián Sainz (Havana, Cuba, 1986) graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in 2010 with a degree in Media Arts, and from the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños with a degree in Documentary Direction. Sainz has worked as director, editor, and producer in documentary films in Cuba, Canada, Switzerland, and Spain. His short documentary films, focused on LGBTQ culture on the island and Cuban youth, have been selected and awarded in several international film festivals. Sainz teaches documentary cinema several institutions. He lives and works as an independent filmmaker in Havana, Cuba.

Sainz will present his talk titled “Imagining Cuba: Emerging Documentary Filmmaking and Social Change.‘€ As Cuba‘€™s government redirects its horizons, independent young filmmakers on the island are trying to build their own space to speak outside the mainstream institutions. By reconstructing the past and exploring the complexity of the present, most of their work imagines a more just and equal country. This talk addresses the struggle of this emerging generation of Cuban filmmakers in order to empower their voices within a complex context of social change. Given in English.

Sponsored by the Cuban & Caribbean Studies Institute