Documentary Summer School in Cuba

9 December 2009

28 June - 23 July 2010

The Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at University College London, in association with the Escuela International de Cine y Television in Cuba and Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, is pleased to offer an intensive, hands-on Documentary Summer School in Cuba next summer, running from Monday 28 June until Friday 23 July 2010. 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 now directed by Tanya Valette, one of the first generation of graduates from the school in 1990. Tanya Valette is from the Dominican Republic and has extensive international filmmaking experience.

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). His most recent film, Entre ciclones (Between Cyclones, 2003), was shown to great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. Professor Stephen Hart of the Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies at UCL, is the co-ordinator of the course and he will be travelling with the group from London to the Film School. 

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. Enrique Colina (EICTV), Stephen Hart (UCL) and Alex Anderson (Ryerson University) work with the teams as the documentary is taking shape. The documentaries are screened at the EICTV on the last Friday of the course and subsequently in November 2010 at the Bloomsbury Theatre in UCL.

The Summer School is open to students from the UK, continental Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand who are currently studying for, or have graduated from, a degree in film studies, media studies, Hispanic/Latin American studies or other relevant areas. You do not need practical experience in filmmaking to take this course. You do not need to speak Spanish as translation is available.


Please send in your completed application form by 1 April 2010, with a deposit of £50, made payable to "University College London".

The balance must be paid by 1 May 2010. If you change your mind, and inform Stephen Hart by that date, your deposit will be refunded in full.

There are only sixteen places available on this course, which will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

There will be an Information Session on Thursday 4 March 2010, at 6:30 p.m. in Foster Court 314.

For further details, please email Stephen Hart.