Title of Film: Cuba : A Lifetime of Passion
Date: 2006
Director: Glen Gerbhard
Writer: Juan Santamarina
Stars: Michael York
Produced: PBS
Budget: $150,000
Cuba: A Lifetime of Passion is a historical documentary Film by Mario Congreve. This film is full of footage of people who were interviewed and had footage of various opinions of how the people of Cuba feel about the history and condition of their country. This documentary film is out of the six mention categories in the book Film As History, History as Film; expository, observational, interactive, reflective, poetic, and performative- an observational and interactive documentary. “Now it became much easier to go out to film historical sites, as well as to set up an interview talking heads either historical witnesses who had lived through events which they re-called and described or experts such as historians, who were used not only to help create a narrative, but also to provide an overview of and context for the story being told.” (Rosenstone, 73)
The Cuban Revolution was the revolt by Fidel Casto- that occurred on July 26 and overthrew the U. S. backed Cuban Dictator, Fulgeneio Batista on January 1, 1959. Even though this was a very important event and topic of the film, none of the interviews spoke on the tragedies or negativity of the dictatorship. This gave the impression that the interviewees were not speaking how they truly felt or were saying complimentary things about their government out of fear.
During the revolution most of the white educated Catholic Cubans fled to the United States. While the darker, more uneducated Cubans were left in Cuba. There in the United States, the newly escaped Cubans enjoyed all that America had to offer during its post-war economic boom. “The rebirth of consumption in an expanded exuberant form was a sign that the war was over. It was time for people to get on with their lives, especially by having more children and buying more goods.” (Smith, 474)
Every film maker has unique reasons for making documentary films on colonial revolutions. When Mr. Congreve was asked, “Why Cuba? You are a citizen from Chile, why make a documentary film about the Cuban Revolution?” His reply was, “ I like to work with people I enjoy working with- to me life is too short to do otherwise.” When Gillo Pontecorvo was asked the same question in “An Interview with Gillo Pontecorvo” his reply was, “I have made so few films my anser must be “by accident.” I make one film every four or five years. In all, I have made four films.” (Mellen/Gillo, 2)
There is a unique filming technique that Mr. Congreve utilizes which include super imposing a television on the screen where someone is being interviewed. This is an original technique that was created by Mr. Congreve to show how the people were secrety interviewd and sometimes did not know that they were being filmed. 
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