Cinematic nightscapes

Eleonora Diamanti is Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at John Cabot University Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Victoria

‘Cinematic nightscapes is a rich, absorbing study of many things, from the place of night across the history of Cuban cinema through the politics of darkness in desperate times. The authors’ reflection on their own film practice flows across a series of fascinating encounters with people, places and the ethical challenges of ethnographic research. This is a major contribution to scholarship on Cuban cinema and the emerging field of night studies.’– Dr. Will Straw, James McGill Emeritus Professor of Urban Media Studies, McGill University‘A pleasurable must-read in contemporary Cuban cinema studies, this book offers an unprecedented framework for research and filmmaking that brings together nocturnal and sound ethnographies to both analyze and produce documentary films. Moving from Havana to rural narratives in eastern Cuba, the authors’ interdisciplinary perspectives guide readers on a sensorial, embodied, affective, and experiential journey through the nocturnal audiovisual landscapes of selected films. By examining the dark hours as sites of (in)visibility, marginalization, contestation, and suspension, Cinematic nightscapes opens new critical pathways for understanding how the night reshapes politics, social relations, spaces, and perceptions.’– Dr. Zaira Zarza, Associate Professor of Cinema, Université de Montréal‘On the ground and in the dark, Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier and Eleanora Diamanti open an aperture onto the efforts of Cubans, who make a living, make meaning, and make music while most of the world is sleeping. Working with such an ethical "nocturnal ethnographic" methodology, and the trust that builds through reciprocity and respect, this book comes after and elaborates their stunning film Guardians of the Night, and thinks through and with such important films about Cuban daily life, from Fernando Perez and Sandra Gomez to youth scenes explored by Aram Vidal and Dami Sainz Edwards. Together their film and the book offer us a sightline to a world that for Cubans has darkened profoundly, materially and existentially. It could not be more timely, and yet it is in so many ways bigger than this historical moment.’– Dr. Susan Lord, Professor of Film and Media, Director of the Vulnerable Media Lab, Queen's University

• PrologueIntroduction: Filmmaking the night1. Cuidar los valores – Caring for valuesEleonora Diamanti2. Cuba y la noche – Cuba and the nightEleonora Diamanti3. Night as underworldEleonora Diamanti4. Evoking the invisible: Experiments in editingAlexandrine Boudreault-FournierConclusion: After the end of dayReferencesFilmography