Activismo: Art & Dissidence in Cuba explores how Cuban artists use “Art as Activism” to transform and improve the human condition.

…I believe that, at the moment, the documentary will have a great impact in Cuba and {with} a more global audience, which is very necessary. I am full of emotion. The trailer is very strong; it made me cry and other friends too. {It} is very helpful now because it inspires other artists in Cuba and hits the regime in the face. What hurts them the most is that the image that they have sold to the world of a just society falls apart. Thank you a thousand on behalf of all the Cubans who are fighting right now. I hope and wish the documentary has the success and impact it deserves…in Berlin and in all film festivals. — Juan Si Gonzalez,  Cuban Artist & Activist

The Documentarians

Producers-directors phil sugden and Carole Elchert on location in Havana, Cuba

With a passion for human rights and a commitment to art as it functions to transform societies, co-directors Philip Sugden and Carole Elchert initiated this project with five prominent Cuban activist artists in 2016. Their artistic collaboration began in the 1980s when Sugden and Elchert traveled to produce artwork on more than 15 working trips to Tibet, Nepal, and other Himalayan regions. Their 1988 Cultural Arts Expedition inspired a PBS collaboration, the ambient film White Lotus: An Introduction to Tibetan Culture. With in-kind technical assistance from Bowling Green State University’s WBGU PBS TV and grants awarded by the Ohio Arts & Humanities Councils and the National Endowment for the Humanities, these Ohio-based independent filmmakers created their first film and a companion book. The book, comprised of scholars’ essays and some of the 26,000 images amassed on that trip, allowed artists from 3 continents to produce work.

On their second and current production—Activismo: Art & Dissidence in Cuba—Sugden and Elchert also pursued artistic collaboration. The project began in 2015 with a trip to Havana, Cuba. They interviewed prominent Cuban artists to reveal how Cuban artists specifically engage through public performances that promote social-political change through risk-taking art activism and dissent. 

With more than four decades of national exhibits and public presentations, both are inspired by the Cuban artists who struggled during Castro’s rule. Still, today, the artists work under repressive policies to secure their freedom of expression, the lifeblood of all artistic pursuits. The Activismo film production team also includes visual storyteller and video editor Jason Baker, and Toledo-based Grammy nominee Tim Story, who composed a soundtrack of sounds and music inspired by Cuba to complement the artists’ voices and ideas.
 

Support the Project

To distribute and promote the film Activismo: Art & Dissidence, we invite donors to support the project by contributing any amount—gratefully accepted. Donations of $1,000 or more are major donors who will receive an original artwork or signed photographic print.

All donors will be acknowledged in the film credits and invited to film screenings. Request a Donors’ Explanation & Project Description by emailing SugdenP@bluffton.edu.

Donation checks may be written to:
Phil Sugden of Floating Temple Productions
P.O. Box 572
Findlay, OH, 45839

Bluffton University acts as the fiscal agent for the project and collects, records the income and expenses.