Filmed for ABC by the pioneers of cinema verité Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles under the direction of Robert Drew, Yanki No! examines the attitudes of Latin Americans towards the US and ends with a call for greater collaboration with Latin America. The movie popularised Fidel Castro among the American public for the first time, although it would end up giving in to the will of the commissioning broadcaster.
La Bataille des Dix Millions was the second film by Chris Marker in Cuba, nine years after Cuba Sí!, whose lyrical praise of the Cuban revolution led it to be censored in France. The director himself took it out of circulation with no clear explanation, although he left us this second, less effusive and more analytical, work. The film focuses on the failure of Castro's audacious call for a harvest of ten million tonnes of sugar. The documentary consists of a mixture of loaned images, mostly from Santiago Álvarez. In his day, he was an effective instrument of counter-propaganda and the film now offers us a notable testimony of Cuba one decade after the revolution, when the country was trying to steer a course against the winds and currents of the Cold War.
Films by Robert Drew Associates and Chris Maker, framed within the season 'For an Impossible Cinema. Documentary and Avant-garde in Cuba (1959-1972)'.