Advice for Filming a Documentary in Cuba as a Foreigner
By: Fourwind Films
Tags: Filmmaking Tips, Filmmaking, Documentary, Cuba, Havana

By Piper Werle

This article is based on an interview with filmmaker Emily Feng. Answers have been edited for clarity.

A young male ballet dancer in Havana divulges his passion for the art form in a culture known for fostering machismo. A successful Chinese restaurateur who fell in love with a Cuban man gives insight into her daily life.

Film still of Carlitos taking a private ballet lesson in Havana, Cuba. Photo courtesy of Emily Feng.

These are the subjects of documentary filmmaker Emily Feng’s two short docs: Carlitos and Tao Qi, named after the dancer and the restaurant owner, respectively. A couple of years ago, Emily took the NYU course: Documentary Video Production in Havana, Cuba. The course website is enticing: “From rhumba and salsa, Revolution-era art and literature to the recent opening of American influence, Havana is a landscape that is overflowing with possibilities for documentary storytelling — and it’s yours to discover.” The U.S. and Cuba have a fraught history, yet since Obama eased travel restrictions, more and more people from the U.S. are visiting the Caribbean island.

This is not an article about how to determine your eligibility to film in Cuba. Rather Emily shares her experiences and biggest takeaways for anyone who can benefit from a first-hand perspective.

The poster for Tao Qi, courtesy of Emily Feng.

Censorship and Checking Your Privilege

“Be aware of censorship, permits, your privilege, and your Western point of view. It’s really important to have an open mind and don’t let any past prejudices or judgments hinder you from telling the story that’s true to their world,” Emily advises. All of the students in her program had to write up film treatments prior to travel and get them approved. On that, Emily shares:

“Anything related to the government, U.S.-Cuba relations, or anything political was kind of — I guess the program also wants to be careful because it wants to maintain its relationship with Cuba. So they have to be super careful about the films we’re producing there.”

Fourwind Films actually considered filming in Cuba for the documentary Frames of Reference, but director Justin Joseph Hall was advised by Jon Alpert, director of Cuba and the Cameraman, not to bother. Frames of Reference examines the successes and failures of education systems around the world by talking to people directly impacted by them, and getting access to educational systems in Cuba was not predictable due to budgetary concerns. Justin ended up shooting in Colombia instead.

Having a Translator or Local Guide

Emily is not a Spanish speaker and was able to secure a local peer to help her conduct interviews and get around the city. Being with the NYU program gave her a special “in” to securing a translator she could trust and work with, though she emphasizes how friendly, open, and helpful the locals she encountered were, and how this friendliness reflects the wider culture:

“In the first few days we got there we were roaming the streets trying to figure out where to go to find our subjects. And this lady saw that we were just a bunch of foreigners roaming around and came up to us and was like, ‘what are you doing here?’ We told her and she started naming all these ideas for us. She was like, ‘my husband’s brother works at this place, you could go talk about him, you could go interview him.’ Or like, ‘my friend’s friend does this, you can go talk to her.’ Everyone was so helpful, and so much communication is word-of-mouth.”

Emily’s guide, a Cuban student who had worked with the NYU students to make his own film, was also instrumental in helping Emily get around, as public transportation and even taxis can be difficult to navigate. If you need a translator, Emily has this advice, which works for any language:

“One thing I learned was that to build a stronger connection with my subject, even though he couldn’t understand me and I couldn’t understand him, we had to talk to each other. I had to ask my questions looking at him instead of looking at my translator. So that the relationship is between me and him and not my translator and him. In order to build a more intimate bond with my subject I needed to ask like this, even though it felt really weird.”

Film still of Carlitos with his ballet tutor. Courtesy of Emily Feng.

Finding People to Interview

Though it depends on when you go, Emily had limited access to the internet, and it’s not something that you can count on working. This makes for a far less regimented process than one might have while making a documentary in the U.S., or another country where Internet access is more ubiquitous. Emily says:

“I had limited internet access and social media usage, so finding subjects solely stemmed from talking to locals and getting referral after referral. It was a fascinating experience to make documentaries without the usual technology we have like emailing back and forth and calendar invites. It was definitely more of ‘a show up and hope they remembered that you had scheduled an interview with them’ situation. I think the most important thing was finding subjects that I connected to in some way, even though our lives were so different.”

Emily knew before arriving that she wanted to make docs about a male ballet dancer and a Chinese restaurant owner. Once she got there, she just needed to do the work of finding subjects. While that search took a lot of work, having the specific intention helped her find Carlitos and Tao Qi. Tao Qi caught her attention immediately:

“I remember when I arrived at the restaurant (named “Tien Tan”) she was just sitting outside by herself smoking a cigarette, she just looked so badass. She was wearing all red and looked so powerful. Seeing a female restaurant owner really drew me to her, and I was really interested in what her immigrant experience was compared to mine. Growing up in the Western countries I didn’t really hear about Asians in other parts of the world.”

Film still of Tao Qi in her home. Courtesy of Emily Feng.

Research and Mindset

I asked Emily if she had any skills or mindsets that helped her:

“I think it requires a lot of openness. I find that sometimes it’s very easy for people to go to a non-Western country with their Western points of view, and I think that that is not beneficial to the truth of the storytelling that you want to portray. You have to understand where they’re coming from, what their culture is, what their background is, to really tell their story. And I think that you need to be really brave. I’m a pretty shy and introverted person, especially since I didn’t know Spanish that well, so it was difficult for me to go up to people and talk to them, but I learned that people are so nice there.”

She also recommends learning some Spanish if you don’t speak it in order to build stronger relationships with locals and doing research, including watching other films set in Cuba. Her class found Cuba and the Cameraman by Jon Alpert (who is a guest on one of Fourwind Film’s Feature & a short episodes) especially helpful. If you’ve seen Jon’s impressive documentary, which is currently streaming on Netflix, it only affirms all of what Emily shares.

Emily Feng’s documentaries are making the film festival circuit! You can learn more about Carlitos here and Tao Qi here.

About the filmmaker: Emily Feng is a writer, director, and editor based in New York City. She has worked on music videos, narratives, brand campaigns, and documentaries. Most notably, her documentaries shot in Havana, Cuba have been selected at Best Shorts Competition, PopDoc Awards, Asian Film Festival Los Angeles Hollywood, and Seattle Asian American Film Festival. She is currently working on writing her first feature film as well as working as a videographer and video editor for The Chelsea Music Festival in NYC. She aims to make space in the industry for stories of underrepresented voices and to connect people, despite our differences, through our shared humanity and emotions.

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