Fernando Pérez et al. A world cinema of questions

Abstract

A major feature of Cuban filmmaker Fernando Pérez (Havana Suite, Madagascar), is his capacity to construct a “decentred image that contests the norm that dominates the public sphere” (Michael Chanan) by creating what I would like to coin “a cinema of questions” in contrast to a mainstream “cinema of answers”. Beyond the film text, his sometimes controversial decisions also question the status quo. The questions raised by his cinema and some of his attitudes seem to be part of a vision of the world that stands in stark contrast to the majority and connect him to other major directors in distant latitudes. They are both aesthetic and ideological. In this paper, I will explain how they are presented in his films and public interventions.