“Hay Muchísimo Poder en la Oscuridad” : Black Cuir Cinema Clubs in Contemporary Havana

Abstract

Cineclub Cuir and Cine Alternativo are itinerant cinematic events aimed at showing cuir, feminist, avant-garde, Afro-diasporic, and experimental media content in Havana. El paquete semanal is a widespread digital information product that Cubans use to access global media. I argue that Cineclub Cuir and Cine Alternativo’s curatorial frameworks produce exploratory spaces of moving theory that rupture the revolutionary state’s nationalist discourse of colorblindness and racial democracy and the normative and white-washed depictions of queerness that circulate in el paquete. The cinema clubs, which elude state-sponsorship and are free of charge, create collective discursive spaces where participants interrogate the figure of the cuir racializado in sites that are not fully regulated by the state or Cuba’s commodified media markets. The emergence of such spaces in the past three years marks a break with the Cuban state’s post-revolutionary monopoly on cultural spaces but also a resistance to newer, more capitalist forms of media circulation such as el paquete. By projecting moving images of Black queer intimacy in alleyways, rooftops, and a multitude of other public and private spaces throughout Havana, Cineclub Cuir and Cine Alternativo comprise a media infrastructure that is ephemeral, difficult to police, and that contravenes the colonial racial and spatial logics that organize the city.