THE NEW CUBANS

BOOK & TOURING EXHIBITION

Amidst the countless hardships of life in Cuba and despite the present-day migration crisis, the younger generation is shaping a new reality defined by nonconformity, gender diversity, and resilient creative expression. The New Cubans is a visual journey into this lesser-known Cuba, uprooting the cliché depictions of Cuban cigars, vintage cars, all-inclusive resorts, and Cold War echoes.

Jean-François Bouchard’s cinematic photography illuminates the previously underreported youth culture of contemporary Cuba, revealing a polymorphic, intimate community in which personal expression and gender diversity are vivaciously celebrated. Texts include an interview with renowned photographer, Yale professor and former Vice photo director Matthew Leifheit and an essay by Cuban art critic Jorge Peré. The New Cubans showcases a Cuba few outsiders have seen or possibly even know exists.

Over recent years, an imperfect storm of global and local circumstances has reinvigorated Cuba’s creative and alternative subcultures like never before. Largely driven by the recent widespread Internet access and the relaxation of the embargo during the Obama administration, the younger generation has increasingly embraced global influences, while suffering from the dire economic context on the island. Due to Cuba’s strict COVID-19 lockdowns and renewed U.S. sanctions, few overseas visitors have witnessed this vibrant new reality.

But Cuba also faces the largest migration crisis in its existence. In the past few years alone, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have left the country, many of them younger people. Many of the author’s subjects have since fled the island or intend to, making his photographs vestiges of rapidly vanishing social circles and moments in Cuban history.

The projects’s ultimate aim is to reveal the lesser-known but vibrant Cuban inclusiveness, gender-diversity openness, and the lifestyles of the younger, connected Cubans who will shape the future of the island or leave it behind in search of new possibilities.

Comprising more than 150 intimate, revealing photographs over 244 pages, The New Cubans is augmented with profiles of the fascinating individuals who welcomed Bouchard into their world.

The project also features the short documentary The Ones Who Stay, which captures the struggles of young Cubans who have chosen to remain on the island, despite the mass migration and the painful absence of friends and family.

The film was presented in our home town at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Official National Competition).

Written and directed by: Olivier Côté & Jean-François Bouchard
With: Devon Ruiz, Israel Martín Rodríguez, Ronald O. Rodrìguez Alfonso, Tomás Agüero
DOP: Olivier Côté
Editing: Olivier Côté, Félix Bouffard-Dumas, Laura Bari
Sound: Christophe Voyer, Frédérick Takvorian, Jacob Marcoux
Music: Ludovic Rolland-Marcotte
Production: Olivier Côté (Roger Lee Productions)
Executive producer: Jean-François Bouchard