November 24, 1998
Gloria Rolando also will visit classes in film and in Latin American Studies, and will meet with faculty in the departments of theatre and film, Latin American studies and African and African-American studies.
Rolando's films focus on the diverse origins and components of contemporary Cuban society. Her career spans more than 20 years at the Cuban National Film Institute as researcher, assistant director, script writer and director. She now heads an independent film-making group, Imagines del Caribe, based in Havana.
She is currently working on a film on the 1912 Cuban Army genocide of the Independents of Color, the first black political party in this hemisphere.
English versions of her films will be presented at KU.
"My Footsteps in Baragua," which deals with the assimilation of British cultural patterns in Cuba due to the presence of immigrants from different British Caribbean islands, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union. The film also shows the native customs of the immigrants through their songs and dances.
"Eyes of the Rainbow," a film on Assata Shakur, the Black Panther and Black Liberation Army leader who took refuge in Cuba, will be shown at 5 p.m. Dec. 1 in 330 Strong Hall.
"Oggun: the Eternal Present," which opens with a recounting of the myths of the Yoruba gods, Ogun and Oshun, and includes scenes from a toque in Havana, will be shown to students only on Dec. 1.