Historicizing Cine Jóven and Cuba’s Audiovisual Landscape: New Paradigms in Digital Media Production and Circulation

Abstract

The Cuban government’s response to the increasing ability of ordinary citizens and media makers to produce their own content has ranged from ambivalence to hostility, and such usage has challenged the state’s broad control of media production and circulation. In the audiovisual sector, this new media ecology, together with economic reforms that ignore the contemporary needs of artists and the declining relevance of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry, is altering how films get produced and distributed. This essay analyzes the role that cine jóven is playing in the current media landscape. It argues that, despite formidable obstacles, a new generation of audiovisual producers are pivotal actors in the construction of a more pluralistic and democratic media landscape in Cuba.