Featuring sixteen Cuban cinema posters (and a signed and numbered print of Alberto Korda's iconic photograph of Che Guevara) recently given to the Ackland by eminent art historian, collector, and Carolina alumnus David Craven, Almost Now: Cuban Art, Cinema, and Politics in the 1960s and 1970s examines the central role that artists, filmmakers, and film audiences have played in Cuban cultural and political discourse since the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

During the 1960s and 1970s, both printmaking and filmmaking flourished in Cuba, and the cinema poster became the artistic medium of the moment. Some of the most prominent Cuban artists of this time are represented in Almost Now, including Rene Portocarrero, Raul Martinez, and Alfredo Rostgaard.

The posters seen in Almost Now announce films of varied genre and subject, including feature films, shorts, and documentaries about literary, social, and political topics. For example, Cartas del Parque is an adaptation of stories by author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Hasta la Victoria Siempre honors Che Guevara on the occasion of his death, and Por Primera Vez shows audiences in rural communities watching Charlie Chaplin's classic film Modern Times for the first time.

Today, these images continue to challenge preconceptions about Cuban identity and culture. Craven, now professor of art history at the University of New Mexico, says they had the same power when he first encountered them in Cuba twenty-five years ago. "I was struck with how the art there contradicted almost everything said about it in the US," he says.

For further information about Cuban cinema, history, and art, as well as a filmography of the films depicted in the posters seen in the exhibition, download this resource sheet.

Almost Now participates in a group of programs at UNC-Chapel Hill that focus on Cuban history, art, and cinema. In November, the Institute for the Study of the Americas presents The Cuban Revolution at 50: Art and Cinema, a series of lectures by scholars at local and national universities, and screenings of more recent Cuban films. The inaugural lecture in the series, scheduled for November 1, 2009, will bring Craven to UNC-Chapel Hill. Craven will also speak as the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Art's 2009 Riggins lecturer. Together with the Ackland, the Institute for the Study of the Americas will screen films in their collection that correspond to posters in Almost Now.