Directed by Sara Gómez • 1977 • Cuba
Starring Yolanda Cuéllar, Mario Balmaseda, Mario Limonta
The only feature from the radical Afro-Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez—who also worked as an assistant director with Agnès Varda and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea before her untimely death at age thirty-one—is an extraordinary portrait of postrevolution Cuba. Blending invaluable documentary footage with a loose narrative about the budding relationship between an outspoken schoolteacher (Yolanda Cuellar) and a young worker (Mario Balmaseda) facing a moral crisis, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER depicts revolution as an ongoing process that takes place at the level of community—among friends, lovers, coworkers, teachers, students, and parents, all of whom must work together to negotiate a new social order. Above all, Gómez offers a trenchant intersectional critique of the lingering sexism and machismo that, she argues, must be cleared away in order to create a truly just society.
Up Next in Season 1
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I’ll Go to Santiago
Directed by Sara Gómez • 1964 • Cuba
A joyous portrait of the Cuban port city of Santiago de Cuba offers a vivid snapshot of everyday Afro-Cuban life.
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Excursion to Vueltabajo
Directed by Sara Gómez • 1965 • Cuba
Sara Gómez looks at the changes wrought by the Cuban revolution through its impact on tobacco production.
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Guanabacoa: Chronicle of My Family
Directed by Sara Gómez • 1966 • Cuba
Director Sara Gómez journeys back to her hometown of Guanabacoa to explore her family history in this deeply personal look at the experiences of a Black, middle-class family in Cuba both before and after the revolution.
