Author Description

In 1958, Cuba was a Caribbean island with a prosperous economy. The geographical proximity and the economic relationship with the US enabled Cuba to generate prosperity and augment the technological level. During this prosperous time, many Cinemas were constructed on the Island. With more than 130 theaters only in the city of Havana and a total of 511 in the island, Cuba had more movie theater in its capital city than Paris and New York together. Cuba was the island of the cinemas. Most of these cinemas were founded and build by important American producing companies such as Metro Goldwin Meyer, Columbia Pictures, and 20 Century Fox. In them, the viewer could enjoy the latest movies made in Hollywood and Cinecittà. After the Revolution the number of the cinemas rose even more till almost 600 in the country. In the last 60 year these buildings, once the key of society of the cities and villages, are slowly abandoned due to the lack of money and movies. Today only 19 cinemas are working and still projecting movies. Some of the others, have been given to be used for other purposes and are now Theaters, ballrooms or given to folkloric dances groups but the majority lies in a state of decay. "Cines de Cuba" is a photographic voyage to find and document, with a medium format film camera, the stories of the 363 cinemas still existing in Cuba and their transformation.