When Cuban movie theatres delivered the news - The Listening Post (Feature)

3,784 views · Published 14 May 2017 · 9:39 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Al Jazeera English · 2017 · Entertainment

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When cuban movie theatres delivered the news - The Listening Post (Feature)
Between 1960-1990, Cuba's film institute produced a weekly news program called El Noticiero ICAIC. It would be shown before film screenings in the capital Havana and in towns and villages around the island.

During those 30 years, the news bulletin covered history – both local and global: the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Big of Pigs invasion, coups around Latin America; the Vietnam War, independence wars in Africa - leaving a celluloid record of major events viewed through Cuban eyes.

In all, there were 1493 newscasts produced, many of could just be derided as propaganda – but which pushed the limits of news, of visual storytelling, that have left a legacy we think is worth a revisit. 

The Listening Post went to Cuba and talked to one of the producers behind the newscasts, Manuel Perez Paredes. Cinema newsreels are anachronisms now – but back then, Cubans were covering the news their way. And we haven't seen anything like what they produced, since.  

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