On the sun-drenched coastal plain of Cuba’s Isla del Pinos, one can still glimpse the terrible symmetry of the Presidio Modelo—the Panopticon prison built by dictator Gerardo Machado in 1926. This poetic film artfully evokes the structure’s oppressive gaze as well as the nascent revolutionary fervor of its most famous prisoner, Fidel Castro.

Filmmaker Q&A

Introduce yourself:
I was born in Medellin, Colombia, and I studied Design Engineering and Photography before moving to Vancouver BC where I continued my post-secondary studies in video and photography. In 2004 I enrolled at Simon Fraser University in the Film Production Program and in 2008 completed my BFA with the production of the documentary PRESIDIO MODELO. PRESIDIO has been screened in London, Florence and in Montreal where it was awarded ‘Best Experimental Production’ at the Canadian Student Film Festival.

What inspired this film?   How did you find your subjects?
The making of PRESIDIO MODELO was a personal journey from beginning to end. I traveled to Cuba without any knowledge of the prison. I took a camera with me to the island with the idea of making a documentary about a paraglider pilot that I had heard of or read about in a magazine somewhere a long time ago. As soon as I landed in Havana, I planned my two months of travel around the island with the idea of shooting the paragliding documentary. Starting in Pinar Del Rio in the north, I traversed the country down to Santiago de Cuba in the south in search for the paraglider pilot. There I learned, to my utter disappointment that that he had recently moved to the Isle of Youth, formerly known as the Isle of Pines, located north close to Havana, 24 hours by bus from where I was.

That is where I encountered the Presidio Modelo. Its structure immediately captivated my imagination. I started reading whatever had been written about the prison and the more I read, the more the horrors of the prison came to life and shaped the story that would eventually turn into the short film. Presidio Modelo was built in 1926, during General Machado’s Regime, based on a design by British philosopher and academic Jeremy Bentham. The prison was built as a panopticon, which was a design conceived to optimize efficiency and control, allowing one man to keep watch over thousands and assuring order and prosperity for all.

The design of the prison was conceived as the perfect model for not only penitentiaries, but also entire social systems. In the Presidio Modelo there is no escape from the eye of authority. Although the cells are now empty, their remains are forever imprisoning time. They are time capsules evidencing the horrors of isolation. Their prison walls are carved with prayers, with remains of a past that is peeling off its walls and piling up on the ground. The walls in the prison scream: the past is way too vivid in those cells.

After the visit to the prison I returned to Havana. Every wall in the city reminded me of the horrors of the Presidio. Every corner of the city seemed as if it were hiding a history that slowly peeled off its facing facades. The prison as a concept escaped the Isle of Pines and became a metaphor for the past and for the unavoidable weight of memory. It became evidence for the omnipresent cells of history. The film therefore reflects on the concept of the panopticon and its multifaceted and far reaching reality. It documents its crumbling walls, its inescapable gaze, and its invisible nature. The narrator in the film is both an insider and an outsider; it’s the voice of the guard in the tower and a collection of the voices of prisoners all around him. The prison is a cell, it is a penitentiary, and an island; the prison is reflected as an entire nation and a single person.

What were some of the biggest challenges/surprises?
The biggest challenge was the fact that I only had 20 minutes of video so I had to really choose my shots. It was hard to concentrate in that prison too. The place was completely abandoned and you could hear your footsteps resonating everywhere. It’s a very strong place and that was the feeling that I wanted to capture for the film.

Who are some of your favorite filmmakers?
Chris Marker, Alain Resnais, Michel Brault..

What is your all time favorite documentary?
POUR LA SUITE DU MONDE.

What other projects are in the pipeline?
A short film with the National Film Board of Canada.

Why did you become a filmmaker?
I got into filmmaking after taking a photography/video course at an art school in Vancouver. I had no intentions of being a filmmaker, but in that course I discovered that filmmaking was as creative as industrial design (and didn't create so much solid waste). I slowly became interested in how film can speak to the relationship between fact and fiction; between what is recalled and what is inevitably constructed. My short films all touch in one way or another issues of displacement, history and collective memory.

What are some of your creative influences?
Radio documentaries, bike rides and flea markets.

Did you go to film school?
Yes, for four full years.

What do you shoot on?
Anything that captures pictures.

What has been the most unexpected thing to happen since taking the film on the festival circuit?
I suddenly started morphing from a cabinetmaker into a "filmmaker".

Why did you want to screen your film at SILVERDOCS?
Because it’s a fabulous festival.