The film is a unique collaboration between Kalatozov, (Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival for The Cranes Are Flying), Cuban novelist and playwright Enrique Pineda Barnet and renowned Soviet poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko.

Made in 1964, the film dramatizes conditions that led to the 1959 Cuban revolution and was banned in the United States for three decades. It was rediscovered through the combined efforts of DGA Lifetime Achievement Recipients Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola who spearheaded its restoration and 1995 U.S. release. Following the screening, Global Cinema Sub-Committee Co-Chair Chuck Workman conducted a discussion about I Am Cuba with Alexander (Sasha) Calzatti, who served as Kalatozov’s camera operator on the film.