Bluffton Art Professor’s Documentary to be Screened on Campus

BLUFFTON, Ohio—A documentary about Cuban artists resisting the political regime on the island will be the focus of two Bluffton University Forum’s on March 12.

At 11 a.m. in Yoder Recital Hall, Phil Sugden, assistant professor of art at Bluffton University, and Carole Elchert, retired assistant professor of communication at the University of Findlay, will present a preview of their film “Activismo: Art and Dissidence in Cuba.”

Carole Elchert and Phil Sugden

At 7 p.m., in Yoder Recital Hall, the documentary co-directors will return for a screening of the award-winning film.
Both events are free and open to the public.

Partially funded by a Bluffton University Research Center (BURC) grant, Sugden, Elchert and two videographers, traveled to Havana, Cuba, in December 2015 to gather footage for the film. The 45-minute documentary follows six of Cuba’s prominent artists and explores the role of art as a form of activism.

“Activismo: Art and Dissidence in Cuba,” has been accepted into more than a dozen international film festivals and has won several awards including “Best Directors Feature Documentary” at the Hercules Independent Film Festival in Seville, Spain, and “Best Film of the Year” at the Hudson International Film Festival in Hudson, N.Y.