Page 33 - CR

Roderick Smith shares a
few pics from his trip to
Cuba earlier this year
Guanoroco Theatre

arlier this year, I was part of a
Erailway-enthusiast group visiting
Cuba to look at surviving sugar mills
and some preserved as museums of
milling and railway equipment.
This provided many opportunities to
obtain photographs of cinemas and
theatres, from the grand palaces of La
Habana, to medium-size cinemas in
provincial cities, to small ones
Cine Payret, single screen with 1800 seats. Cine Cespedes
associated with towns huddled around a
mill (and now surviving on digital
projection). TV and video are available
readily. As at 1975, the nation had 450
cinemas screening 35mm; 599
screening 16mm, plus a further 92
mobile ones.
La Habana: There are about ten
dance and theatre shows every week.
There are over 50 cinemas and theatres.
The main palaces are close to the main
square, linking La Havana Vieja and
Gran Teatro de la Habana- home of Opera Centro Habana. There is also a good Bayamo (adult) Theatre
selection in adjacent Vedado, a classy
beachfront suburb housing wealthy
Cubans and foreign embassies.
Cubans are big movie buffs, and
have quite a sophisticated film culture.
The annual International Festival del
Cine Latino Americano is one of the
most famous film festivals in Latin
America and attracts hundreds of
moviegoers every year. Cinemas run
everything from subtitled Hollywood
blockbusters to old and new Cuban
LaHabana Theatre films. Cine America
Most cinemas are concrete, semi
art-deco, probably 1930s or 1950s.
I was constrained to grab shots from
our bus much of the time, but soon had
the others ready to give me advance
warning- one even photographed a
cinema for me in my absence!
The photos show the wide range of
Cine La Plata
Cine Liberadore quality and styles of cinemas that I
witnessed on my Cuban adventure.

CINEMARECORD 2010 33