UNFINISHED SPACES

“Cuba will count as having the most beautiful academy of arts in the world.”
—Fidel Castro (1961)

Cuba's ambitious National Art Schools project, designed by three young artists in the wake of Castro's Revolution, is neglected, nearly forgotten, then ultimately rediscovered as a visionary architectural masterpiece.

In 1961, three young, visionary architects were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to create Cuba's National Art Schools on the grounds of a former golf course in Havana, Cuba. Construction of their radical designs began immediately and the school's first classes soon followed. Dancers, musicians and artists from all over the country reveled in the beauty of the schools, but as the dream of the Revolution quickly became a reality, construction was abruptly halted and the architects and their designs were deemed irrelevant in the prevailing political climate. Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying. Castro has invited the exiled architects back to finish their unrealized dream.

Unfinished Spaces features never before seen footage of Fidel Castro, showing his devotion to creating a worldwide showcase for art, and it also documents the struggle and passion of three revolutionary artists.

2011 / 86 min

Directed/Produced by Alysa Nahmias & Benjamin Murray

Executive Producers: Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown, Luis Ortiz, Sandie Viquez Pedlow

An AJNA Films and The Room Production

With support from: Latino Public Broadcasting, The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts

Watch the Film: VHX, AppleTV, Amazon, YouTube

Get the DVD

Festivals and Awards

Permanent Collection: MoMA, New York
Official Selection: Sundance Film Forward
Winner: 2012 Independent Spirit Award
Winner: Society of Architectural Historians Film & Video Award, Jury Prize
Winner: San Diego Latino Film Fest, Jury Prize
Winner: Salem Film Fest, Jury Prize
Winner: Montreal Festival of Films on Art, Jury Prize
Winner: Valladolid Intl Film Festival
Jury Honorable Mention: Miami Int'l Film Fest

 
Still image from the film of an architect walking through part of the uncompleted school, he is in the center of a spiral of dotted sunlight created by the design of the roof.
Still image of the film of one of the architects standing in front of an uncompleted school, he is wearing a breezy white shirt, leaning on a cane and speaking to the viewer.
Still image from the film of the architecture of one of the uncompleted art schools. It has clean white archways contrasting with warm red bring on the floors, waterfall like stps and the exterior and interior ceilings of the archways.
Still image from the film of one of the uncompleted schools. It is a wide shot and you can see a wide red brick dome nd several half domes with white arches, bright blue sky with clouds in the background and green trees and palm trees on either side.
Still image from the film of one of the uncompleted schools in Cuba. large red brick, dome-like covers create an indoor/outdoor space around the rest of the school structure half embedded in the hillside.
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