In 2011, Lynn Cruz was an up-and-coming actress in the Cuban film industry. After she was cast by independent filmmaker Miguel Coyula in his dystopian film Corazón Azul (which would take ten years to complete), she became the subject of a systematic campaign of social annihilation, trials, police raids, state security interrogations, and intimidations. Chronicles of the Absurd (Crónicas del absurdo) recounts this story through secret audio recordings, visualized through stop motion animation, still photographs, and paintings by Cuban expressionist artist Antonia Eiri. Through an elliptical narrative in nine chapters, Chronicles of the Absurd reveals the complexities and contradictions of a country that leaves little room for internal dissent.
Director Miguel Coyula will join moderator Cristina Venegas (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Chronicles of the Absurd.