What happens when peasants who've never seen a movie watch Chaplin for the first time? Magic.
In 1967, Cuban documentary filmmaker Octavio Cortazar followed a travelling projectionist troupe whose mission was to show moving pictures to rural communities for the first time. Cortazar’s short film documents one audience’s response to its first film: Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.
Direction
Cortázar's patient observation without commentary
Production
Raw rural Cuba captured in grainy 16mm
Director
Octavio Cortázar
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during Cuba's 'Golden Age' of documentary, when ICAIC funded filmmakers to bring cinema to the masses as literacy education. The screening locations were chosen by Fidel Castro's literacy campaign maps.
Cortázar reportedly screened Modern Times specifically because its anti-capitalist themes aligned with revolutionary messaging—yet the peasants responded most to the slapstick romance, not the politics.
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