On the Other Island & Eyes of the Rainbow

Part of “An Open Window: Black Women Directors across the Diaspora” curated by Erisa Apantaku and J. Michael Eugenio.

In On the Other Island (1968, 40 min.), Sara Gómez—the only Black woman in revolutionary Cuba’s film industry—elicits testimonies from the youth of a fledgling revolutionary island colony. In Eyes of the Rainbow (1997, 47 min.), Assata Shakur reflects on life as a political prisoner, interspersed with Afro-Cuban images, songs, and dances. “I come from a tradition of woman maroons, who didn’t just try to escape oppression, but who totally were committed to resisting and to winning.”