Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies

Contact Details

Ms Clare Szembek
(Departmental Co-ordinator)
tel 020 7679 3109;
internal extension X33109;
email c.szembek@ucl.ac.uk

Dr Humberto Núñez-Faraco
(Head of Department)
tel: 020 7679 4332;
internal extension X34332;
email: h.faraco@ucl.ac.uk

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Documentary Summer School in Cuba     

Monday 23 June 2014 - Friday 19 July 2014: "warm conviviality and frenetic hard work"

The Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies, in association with the Escuela International de Cine y Television in Cuba and Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, offers an intensive, hands-on Documentary Summer School in Cuba next summer, running from Monday 23 June 2014 until Friday 19 July 2014.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS SUMMER SCHOOL WILL NOT BE HELD IN THE SUMMER OF 2013, BUT APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN FOR THE SUMMER OF 2014.

The workshop will be held at the world-famous Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television which is situated just 30 miles outside Havana in San Antonio de los Baños. Founded in 1986 by Gabriel García Marquez, the International Film and Television School -- known as a 'Vatican for Film-Makers' -- is a world leader in the field of documentary film-making.

An article in Times Higher Education has referred to the project organised between UCL, Ryerson University and EICTV as making the "acclaimed Cuban film school" "even more culturally diverse and enriching": the atmosphere is "a mixture of warm conviviality and frenetic hard work". Two of the films made at the documentary summer school last summer have been picked up by other festivals. Gentle Men was selected by Reality Bytes, the University of Northern Illinois Film Festival and was screened on 6 April 2011, and Twilight (Crepusculo) was selected for screening at the London International Documentary Festival (18 May 2011).

The course will be taught by one of the School's regular professors, Enrique Colina, who has been making innovative documentaries and films for over twenty years, gaining many international awards for his work. He is also well known in Cuba as the host of an enormously popular TV show about cinema of the 1970s and 1980s called "24 x Segundo" (24 Times a Second). One of his recent films, Entre ciclones (Between Cyclones, 2003), was shown to great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. 

This intensive course has been specially devised in order to inspire participants to make their own documentary within the four-week period. In the mornings students watch, analyse and discuss a selection of canonic documentaries, in order better to comprehend the the genre and mechanics of the documentary form. The afternoons, and weekends, are spent filming. In the first two weeks students will create five, individual 1-2 minute exercises, 'Self-portait', 'The protagonist', 'Conflict Within the Frame', 'Mood of a Place' and 'Stages of a Process'. For weeks 3 and 4, students team up in groups of four or five in order to devise, create, script, film, and edit their own 8-10 minute documentary. Filming takes place in Havana, and each group is provided with a producer, a cameraman, a sound technician and an editor, as well as transport to and from Havana. Editing takes place in one of the EICTV's fully-equipped editing suites, with AVID or Final Cut. The documentaries are screened at the EICTV on the last Friday of the course.

The Summer School is open to English-speaking and Spanish-speaking students from anywhere in the world. Students who have taken this course in previous years -- it has been running since 2006 -- have come from the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Italy, the Ukraine, Russia, Portugal, Romania, United States, Israel, Canada, and Australia. You might be currently studying for, or have graduated from, a degree in film studies, media studies, Hispanic/Latin American studies or other relevant areas. Or, alternatively, you might be a professional journalist or photographer wishing to expand your skills set. Students taking this course in the past have been all ages, ranging from 18 to 58.

Also, you do not need to be a student from UCL to take this course.

You do not need practical experience in filmmaking to take this course.

You do not need to speak Spanish as translation is available.


The cost of the course is 2,400 euros. Payment must be made by bank transfer to the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television by 1 May 2014 to guarantee a place.

For further details, please email Professor Stephen M. Hart.

If you wish to apply, please click here for application form.