Cuba will count as having the most beautiful academy of arts in the world.
– Fidel Castro (1961)
An award-winning documentary about Cuba's ambitious National Art Schools project, designed by three young artists in the wake of Castro's Revolution, is neglected, nearly forgotten, then ultimately rediscovered as a visionary architectural masterpiece.
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ABOUT THE FILM
In 1961, three young, visionary architects were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to create Cuba's National Art Schools on the grounds of a former golf course in Havana, Cuba. Construction of their radical designs began immediately and the school's first classes soon followed. Dancers, musicians and artists from all over the country reveled in the beauty of the schools, but as the dream of the Revolution quickly became a reality, construction was abruptly halted and the architects and their designs were deemed irrelevant in the prevailing political climate. Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying. Castro has invited the exiled architects back to finish their unrealized dream.
Unfinished Spaces features never-before-seen footage of Fidel Castro, showing his devotion to creating a worldwide showcase for art, and it also documents the struggle and passion of three revolutionary artists.
FILM TEAM
A Film by ALYSA NAHMIAS & BENJAMIN MURRAY
FEATURING — Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti, & Roberto Gottardi
Kristen Nutile, Alex Minnick — Editors
Giancarlo Vulcano — Composer
Meg Reticker — Story Consultant
Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown — Executive Producers
Luis Ortiz & Sandie Viquez Pedlow — Executive Producers, Latino Public Broadcasting
Made with support from:
Latino Public Broadcasting
The Jerome Foundation
New York State Council on the Arts
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
The Farber Foundation
LEF Foundation
Reed Foundation
AIA New York Arnold W. Brunner Grant
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation
The Alan & Linda Cohen Family Foundation
The Gotham (IFP)
Fiscal Sponsorship: Women Make Movies
GRANTS & AWARDS
2012 Independent Spirit Award Winner
2014 Society of Architectural Historians Film & Video Award Winner
Jury Prize, San Diego Latino Film Fest
Jury Prize, Salem Film Fest
Jury Prize, Montreal FIFA Festival
Jury Prize, Valladolid Int'l Film Festival
Jury Hon. Mention, Miami Int'l Film Fest
PRESS & REVIEWS
“Lucidly filmed... a stirring study... an absorbing film”
“One of the most engrossing architecture documentaries...”
“Elegantly traces the brief heyday and dark period of Cuba's Art Schools”
READ MORE:
Huffington Post
The Architect’s Newspaper
The Atlantic
Examiner
The Wallstreet Journal
Documentary Magazine
Indie Wire
International Documentary Association
Slant Magazine
Film Threat
Archinect
ReviewFix
Moveable Fest
LA Weekly
Yahoo Movies
Very Aware
Festival Channel
Indie Film Magazine
Festival Channel Video Interview with Nahmias, Murray, Porro, and Gottardi