Film Forum

The Center for Cuban Studies (CCS) is a non-profit educational institution in New York City organized by a group of scholars, writers, artists and other professionals in 1972, dedicated to providing information about contemporary Cuba and contributing to a normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States, including an end to the embargo. The Cuban Art Space is incorporated within the Center for Cuban Studies to promote the work of Cuban artists, especially those living and working in Cuba, and to educate the U.S. public about Cuba’s cultural life — with a collection of more than 10,000 posters, photographs, prints, drawings, paintings, ceramics and other examples of the visual arts in Cuba, plus thousands of slides, catalogs and other information about Cuban artists.

Italian filmmaker Tommaso Santambrogio has lived between Milan, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Havana, and has collaborated with several internationally renowned filmmakers, such as Werner Herzog and Lav Diaz. His first short films (Escena Final and Los Océanos Son Los Verdaderos Continentes) were both screened in 2019 at the Venice Film Festival and were then selected in many festivals around the world. L’Ultimo Spegne la Luce (2021), his latest short film, was screened in official competition at the 36th Venice Film Festival's Settimana della Critica, and then made it into the shortlist at the 2022 David di Donatello Awards. Taxibol (2023), his new docu-film, recently premiered at Visions du Réel. OCEANS ARE THE REAL CONTINENTS is his first feature film and had its world premiere in competition at Venice Days during the 80th Venice Film Festival.

Originally from Minnesota, Sandra Levinson graduated from the University of Iowa and attended the University of Manchester as a Fulbright scholar before completing her master’s degree and doctorate at Stanford University. She taught political science at CCNY and Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and was later the co-host of PBS’s FreeTime. Living in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, she became an activist with Students for a Democratic Society and also served as New York Editor for Ramparts Magazine. She first visited Cube in July 1969, as part of a group of journalists, including Peter Jennings, who met with Fidel Castro. She has made more than 400 subsequent trips to Cuba bringing many luminaries with her (her favorites include Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, Sydney Pollack, Sidney Lumet, & Gregory Peck). She is the founding executive director of the Center for Cuban Studies, and opened the Cuban Art Gallery (now Cuban Art Space) in 1999.

Supported by a Humanities New York Action Grant

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