One Way or Another

Director: Sara Gómez

1977 / 78min / DCP

After learning the ropes of filmmaking as an assistant to Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (1968’s Memories of Underdevelopment), multidisciplinary artist Gómez produced this, her first and only feature, released after her tragic death in 1974. Set against the backdrop of the Sovietization of the Cuban economy, referred to as the quinquenio gris (Five Gray Years), Gómez’s film tells the story of a female teacher who struggles to educate slum children from different backgrounds while also confronting the arrogant machismo of her factory worker lover, who rankles at her independence. A film of documentary immediacy shot on handheld 16mm, One Way or Another explores inequality in a post-revolutionary Cuba still attempting to shed the legacy of its colonial past.