Retrospective

The retrospective #35 is dedicated to the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV), which was founded on 15 December 1986 in San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba). In his inaugural address, the Argentine director and first director Fernando Birri articulated the vision of a transnational film school for students from Latin America, Africa and Asia – a ‘film school of the three worlds’, understood as an act of solidarity with regions shaped by imperial power structures. Today, the EICTV is open to the “school of all worlds”, although the majority of students come from Latin America.

The principles set out in the founding text remain defining to this day: the EICTV sees itself as a “factory, laboratory and amusement park of the eye and the ear” – as a place of creation, experimentation and the joy of cinematic expression. Central to this is a consistently practice-oriented, ‘anti-scholastic’ approach: teaching is carried out exclusively by active filmmakers, and theory and practice are inextricably linked. The aim is to produce filmmakers who are technically proficient, artistically independent and work with an emancipated perspective. After a year of general training (Polivalencia), students specialise in areas such as directing, screenwriting, cinematography, editing, production or sound.

Alongside Birri, Gabriel García Márquez and Julio García Espinosa are among the key figures of the EICTV. At the same time, it becomes clear that the utopian vision does not always stand up to reality: reports of structural problems, allegations of censorship and the increasingly difficult supply situation in Cuba point to existing tensions.

To mark its 40th anniversary, the retrospective also highlights the links with the IFFI Innsbruck. Fernando Birri was a guest at the festival on several occasions and was awarded the IFFI Honorary Prize in 2010. Furthermore, numerous films by EICTV graduates have been screened in Innsbruck. The programme highlights these connections whilst reflecting the school’s diversity in both form and content.

The full retrospective text is available here.