AMI IN CUBA

AMERICAS MEDIA INITIATIVE (AMI) has been working in Cuba since its inception in 2010. AMI is the only organization working nationally in the U.S. to bring the work of emerging Cuban filmmakers to diverse venues and audiences - from think tanks in Washington, D.C. to urban farmers in Detroit. In Cuba, AMI is the first U.S. organization ever given permission to tour the provinces with U.S. films. Our Closing Distances/Cerrando Distancias Documentary Program has traveled to 16 towns in the Cuban provinces and reached more than 800 Cuban citizens, sparking critical and meaningful discussions on gun control, the Iraq War and racism. Closing Distances has brought U.S. documentaries, filmmakers and programmers to audiences in the Sierra Maestra Mountains, Baracoa, Guantanamo, Bayamo, Camaguey, Holguin, Cienfuegos, Havana and Pinar del Río. In April 2015, at the Muestra Joven in Havana, AMI became the first U.S. organization ever to give a cash prize at a Cuban film festival. Since 2011, AMI has invited 13 Cuban filmmakers to the United States and distributed close to 800 DVDs of Cuban independent and community media to more than 70 universities, as well as to individuals in the United States and Canada. AMI now has 14 films in its Cuba DVD catalogue; a distribution collaboration with Icarus Films has allowed educational sales to grow. In this period of new openness, AMI continues to be at the forefront - supporting Cuban independent filmmakers as they tell the stories of Cuba’s past, present and future.