WARNING: Viewer discretion advised. Some scenes contain graphic reenactments of genocide, including dismemberment.
Full Title: The Legacy of Christopher Columbus, A Short Account in Technicolor: Memory One of Ceiba de Cuba, De Sus RaĂces
World Premiere: 2011 Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival, Regency Academy 6 Cinemas, Pasadena, CA. Official Selection, Program 10 Featured Short, Sunday, May 15, 6:00 pm, 2011
Festival sponsored by Sony Pictures, The Walt Disney Company, Latin Heat Entertainment and California State University Los Angeles
Film Synopsis: A brief dramatization of Bartolomé de Las Casas' testimonial account of the Spanish Conquest of the New World. This was an exercise for me and my children in remembering the slaughter which our indigenous Caribbean ancestors endured. My father's grandmother, Clemencia Figueroa, had Siboney ancestry (native tribe of Eastern Cuba). Her grandmother was pure Siboney. Clemencia died a victim of Cuba's War of Independence from Spain. It was also an exercise in memory for the lead actress in the film, Dolann Adams, who is more than half Native American -- Choctaw and Blackfoot on her dad's side and Cherokee and Apache on her mom's side. This work also commemorates the early presence of enslaved Africans on the island of Cuba, my birth place, and their mixing with the indigenous people, upon their escape. Christopher Columbus initiated the importation of enslaved Africans on to the island of Cuba in 1512. Therefore, some of the indigenous people slaughtered in the genocide were also part African. The video is codified with imagery of Afro-Caribbean religion and folklore.
Category: Video-Art / Short Film / Docudrama
Running Time: 6:50 mins
Written, directed, filmed and edited by
LILI BERNARD
Afro-Cuban Batás Drums solo composed
and performed by
MELENA
All quotes taken from the book
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
Written in 1545 by
BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS
