In a post published in Cine Cubano, la pupila insomne website, the Cuban film critic and researcher Juan Antonio García Borrero warned about the technological problem in our country: “Cuba is already part of this fiercely competitive world, as it is demonstrated by all that set of economic measures that are being implemented, and if we do not think from now on that technological literacy which I speak, social exclusion rates will be downright traumatic.”[1]
With lights that always accompany the reflections and calls from Juan Antonio, a debate was opened –which included intellectuals like Victor Fowler, where core issues were discussed at the time to think of a Cuba really immersed in an electronic revolution, where technological culture transcends holding a cell phone or a PC, because “it is not just teaching people to use a computer, but encourage them to maintain a creative and liberating spirit with these technologies.” [2]
But this creative and liberating spirit that Juan Antonio mentions, can only be achieved when people to begin having a legitimate thought and action autonomy, to the extent that the slogan ‘democratization of technology’ to have in practice a significant share of validity, and when we without prejudice assume (also with ethics and civics) a phenomenon that is unquestionably already part of the operating logic of the time we live.
These same concerns (those of Juan Antonio, Victor, and an entire nation) took young director Yaima Pardo to delve into the research that became her most recent documentary OFF_LINE (2013) on access to information, new technologies and Internet in Cuba, and which runs today through various channels of this network available to all users.
We talk with the filmmaker about the research and production process, as well as the experiences gained after the exhibition and socialization of the material.
Yaima, what encouraged you to make a documentary on access to information and the Internet in Cuba?
“The motivation was born from an earlier work co-directed with Didier Santos: ¨Al final del camino¨ (At the end of the road), on the theme of population aging on Cuba. Following this research line I realized that not only people is getting older, but also our city, our political structures, media, etc….
In this effort it was essential to know and make use of internet; experience I managed to materialize when I traveled to Colombia in 2011. I remember on the plane I was accompanied by Colombian students with whom I became friends, and when I landed at El Dorado I started jumping up for joy and told them: I’ll watch a video on the Internet for the first time in my life! And they laughed … they could not believe it.
On that occasion, I was lucky to also see a film that determinedly influenced on my way of thinking the phenomenon of connectivity: Life in a Day (2011), by Kevin McDonald, a 2.0 documentary which registers a day in the life of people from all parts of the planet. And I kept wondering if some Cuban of the island would have participated in the project.
Moreover, in Colombia I noted how universities are connect to each other and I have their own online channels, studies programs and libraries. They also care a lot about increasing connectivity; purpose they include, at government level, within the objectives of the new millennium. I appreciated a sea of possibilities in the network, and because of that, I always wondered-and still do- how such a socialist tool is not effectively exploited in my country. Thus OFF_LINE emerged. “
Why did you focus your gaze on critics , political scientists, artists, intellectuals in general, besides the fact that certain times random interviews conducted as opinion surveys appear?
“Professions were not my priority, but I was rather focused on finding honest people concerned about the possible fate of our nation. And I found these voices on Internet, in the various debates that I read and served me as inspiration like the compilations of Observatorio Critico website , articles posted on Cubadebate, texts of Cine Cubano, la pupila insomne website, the volumes that Desiderio Navarro circulates via email, among others.
I wanted to include in the documentary many of the ideas addressed in these texts, and take into account ratings of their authors, who use the Internet to express with sincerity and solidity our social problems. They helped me to defend my criteria.
As for the random interviews I was looking to capture a state of general opinion, and for that we went to ETECSA (Spanish acronym for Cuban Telecommunications Company) offices, shopping centers, schools, to access to people who may have an urgent need to communicate. We also went to Santa Fe, a neighborhood which needs a lot being connected when considering its remoteness from the center of the city. Finally, we recorded everything we could. However, previous research was reading and studying in depth about Cuba and our economic, political, cultural and social context . “
When you see OFF_LINE you expected also finding reviews of Cubans for whom, paradoxically, accessing and using internet is not a problem. It would have been interesting to contrast distant experiences regarding this phenomenon, criteria that enrich the central thesis instead of affecting it. What conditioned then this lack of discourse and divergent views in the documentary?
“The Internet, like all revolutionary tool, has its positive and negative aspects, but that will depend on the use to be given to technology, and I think that putting it in the hands of an educated people as Cuba´s can only bring good results. However, our society lags behind when compared to the rest of the world, and this was one of the main lines we wanted to defend. Of course I wanted to obtain official government statements and we reveal it in the material when we published the interview request that we sent to Miamir Mesa Ramos, Minister of Communications,., but we are still waiting for his reply. “
In visual terms, the interference of digital speech codes , the constant use of graphics and sound paratexts (Facebook pages, Youtube, online newspapers, chats, inboxes …), which decentralize, symbolically if you want-the given testimony; as well as the play with video projection aesthetics, mapping and motion design pollute the illusion of reality in the film to create a seemingly virtual space, fully in line with the topic dealt. On what conceptual lines did you work the aesthetic aspect, as an important element in shaping meanings within the work?
“We wanted to visualize Internet and its communicative potential, thus OFF_LINE works as part of the neo- literacy campaign that it fosters. To do this, we place the interviewees within a virtual building and in this endeavor the contribution of Rezak video mapping team was crucial, like the one of Helman Avelle, our editor and designer, whose participation was decisive in the staging.
We proposed ourselves to represent Internet as a parallel universe where Cuba is shown from edges not covered by Cuban newspapers, radio and TV thus noting the alternative creativity that generates this new and unexplored communication platform. “
Within this fragmented, pastiche visual, sometimes you used the associative montage, and you set various instructional levels between the phenomenon of technological stagnation in Cuba and the social crisis. To what extent does OFF_LINE is a metonym of Cuban society in general?
“To answer this question I’ll tell you how the name of the documentary came . I was looking for an ATM machine available in Vedado neighborhood, but they all were Off Line. That created me a crisis because I had no money, but this was a minor setback that I could solve in a short term. Now, the more serious problem, the one concerning the technological backwardness in our country will have a possible short-term solution. When will technology be functional in our society? When will massive connectivity be an urgency in Cuba? I could make OFF_LINE, with its peculiarities, because I work at ICRT (Spanish acronym for Cuban Film Institute) and have an internet monthly account of 40h, a limited connection but the vast majority of Cubans do not have it. And that was another reason that led me to delve into this topic. Sometimes I have the feeling of living in the past, and it’s a shared sentiment. Therefore OFF_LINE reflects all these concerns. “
The music and sound effects acquire great significance in the documentary. How was the soundtrack conception process?
“The soundtrack is by Esteban Vasquez, who did an excellent work by giving life and realism to our visual madness. But most of the music comes from the Cuban Hip Hop movement, which to me is very inspiring because it has not lost connection with people.
As they are not so broadcast by radio or TV I was very interested to promote their work. Thus we included tracks by Barbaro el Urbano Vargas, Danay Suarez, Maykel Extremo and La Alianza, Silvito el Libre. We also added to Francis del Rio and Roberto Fonseca, who contributed with an original song for the documentary.
Generally, the chosen tracks reveal a very valuable alternative trend, among other factors by the sincerity of their lyrics, which provided support to the whole narrative. “
Among the strategies you have created to socialize material you contemplate both classical exhibition spaces (film samples, festivals …), and others less traditional: Internet , universities, communities, etc … How was the feedback process with the work?
“Independently management distribution was our principle; hence we are currently working in organizing a tour of several Cuban cities, where we will exhibit the film in order to stimulate discussion, reflection and creativity. I would like that we all to think of what use we would give to internet if we had it.
Currently OFF_LINE has been chosen as part of the official selection of the 13th ICAIC Young Sample, to be held in April at Chaplin Movie Theater. That will be an important moment.
On the other hand, the film is available in internet since 2013, and since then I have been contacted by journalists, media, new media students from countries such as Chile , Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Colombia, amazed by the situation in Cuba. I think the documentary has revealed the urgency of a massive connection in our country, and all the controversy following its dissemination has been a big boost for us. “
The reception studies , from where it would be very interesting to analyze OFF_LINE, which construction lies in its interaction with the viewer, are among the major contributions to the cinema theories (primarily from post-structuralism). This is not a documentary intended for promotional display and passive and conventional consumption, but as a catalytic, inductive, proactive and participatory tool, because the original material will be the basis of the 2.0 documentary that you have in hand. I think you are filming the major documentary now. Am I right?
“OFF_LINE is designed to be seen in internet, in a movie theater or at home in your PC, because the essential thing is that you can interact with it, make it yours. I know stories of people who spent up to an hour seeing it because they watched every detail, and others who saw it more than once. This confirms that we achieved our goals. I am told that even spontaneously some friends come together to see it and be able to comment. Even one day, some boys called me from Camaguey (motivated by the documentary) to tell me about their aspirations and failures with Online projects.
OFF_LINE moves closely related to activism proposed by Internet, and it will actually not end until the problem of de-connectivity in Cuba to have a solution. Our interest is to add up all the possible initiatives.
Meanwhile, we are maturing the idea of making a 2.0 experiment from the entire interviews we did. They will be available to all, and netizens can download them and make their own cuts, making their documentary and add new statements if they wish . I am convinced that many new views will born on the same subject as authors and realities to be.
We have much work to do, many ideas that add, many people to hear, and an island to go. We must avoid the usual “centralization in Havana”. OFF_LINE is an open, participatory, mobilizing documentary because its main purpose is to fight for an Online Cuba or an On Cuba. “
Author
Ariadna Ruiz Alamanza
