An exclusive screening of Néstor Almendros’s and Orlando Jiménez Leal’s Improper Conduct (1984), a groundbreaking and critically acclaimed documentary on the Cuban government’s persecution of political dissidents, poets, homosexuals, and those simply labeled by the authorities as “antisocial” elements, many of whom were imprisoned, tortured, or sent to forced labor camps. Released 35 years ago, the scathing testimonials presented in the film brought to widespread public consciousness for the first time the entrenched pattern of human rights violations by the Castro regime, which still resonate today, particularly in light of the resurgent wave of repression against gays and anti-government protests on the Island.
Among the many well known figures interviewed are Reinaldo Arenas, Heberto Padilla, Caracol, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Susan Sontag, Armando Valladares, Ana Maria Simo, Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Franqui, Martha Frayde, René Ariza, and Fidel Castro himself.
The late Néstor Almendros was an Oscar-winning cinematographer (”Days of Heaven”), and worked most memorably with Eric Rohmer and Francois Truffaut, and award-winning director Orlando Jimenez-Leal lists among his many credits the documentaries PM (1961), 8-A (1993) and the film El Super (1979). Pictured left, Almendros and Jiménez Leal during the filming of Improper Conduct.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Orlando Jiménez Leal.
Mid-Manhattan Library at 42nd Street
The New York Public Library
476 Fifth Avenue (at 42nd Street)
New York, NY 10018
(212) 340-0863
The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.
For a 35th anniversary trailer of Improper Conduct, click here:
This event is co-sponsored by the Caribbean Connections Program
at the Mid-Manhattan Library at 42nd Street
And is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
