Last March Balladeer’s Blog examined several pioneering silent movies made in Cuba, from Havana’s Fire Drill (1897) – the very first Cuban-made film – to 1901 coverage of the Constitutional Assembly, to 1906 film footage of the religious festival La Tutelar de Guanabacoa, which could be openly celebrated back then.
Wrapping up the nine shorts was Cuba’s first horror film – 1907’s La Leyenda del Guije del Rio Sagua – about an evil man being transformed into a clawed, hairy monster called a guije.
A TOURIST IN HAVANA (1908) – A documentary short depicting the sights to be seen by tourists in 1908 Havana. The director was Enrique Diaz Quesada, who founded the first film studio in Cuba alongside his brother Juan. This short debuted on September 15th at Havana’s Payret Theater.
EL CABILDO DE NACION ROMUALDA (1908) – Another Quesada short, this one capturing a publicly performed Cabildo Afro-Cuban religious ceremony. Such Cabildos dated back centuries and originated as figurative “bread and circuses” for the Cuban slave population, but they also preserved songs, dances, chants and drum music dedicated to the deities that had been worshipped back in Africa. No copies of this movie have survived. The work was filmed at a garden in the Esquina de Tejas. Pepe Acosta produced.
RESTORATION OF THE REPUBLIC (1909) – Part of the silent newsreel series Cuba al Dia, this covered the departure from Cuba of the disgraced and corrupt Provisional Governor Charles E. Magoon.
INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT GENERAL JOSE MIGUEL GOMEZ (1909) – Another newsreel, this one filming the inauguration of Magoon’s elected successor.
JUAN JOSE (1910) – First filmed version of the irreverent Spanish satirical play of the same name written in 1895 by Joaquin Dicenta. The storyline involved a worker fighting with his employer over a woman they both love. This 1910 production ran 16 minutes and starred Boffield Garrido. Continue reading
FIRE DRILL aka Simulacro de Incendio (1897) – On January 24th of this year, Gabriel Veyre (at left) held the very first exhibition of silent film shorts in Cuban history at a theater in Havana. 
FILM COMMERCIAL FOR LA TROPICAL BEER aka the Missing Sorcerer (1898) – This was the very first film directed by a native Cuban – Jose Esteban Casasús, a noted pioneer of Cuban Cinema. Lasting just under a minute, this short advertised the brewery & product of La Tropical beer and was produced by Cinemataca de Cuba.
CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY (1901) – A film capturing the 1901 assembly, the equivalent of our Constitutional Convention. Following the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War, Cuba produced its first constitution a few years later. That document was openly based on the United States Constitution but had 115 articles instead of America’s 7. 
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