Improper Conduct
Gay | The Celluloid Closet | New Queer Cinema: The Director's Cut | Frameline Audience Award – Best Documentary | Documentary | 1984
Original Title
Mauvaise Conduite- Director: Néstor Almendros; Orlando Jiménez Leal
CGiii Comment
The 'moral purges' following the Cuban Revolution...persecution...crimes against humanity.
A major fault of the documentary is that there is no testimony from the many perpetrators of the persecution...it needs balance, corroboration not just a series of Castro-bashing talking heads...that's too simplistic.
It is now time to revisit, re-address and, reveal this revolting piece of modern history - especially for those who have mellowed towards the Castro regime...and, for those, too young to know that persecution can rear its malignant head within the blink of an eye.
Castro will die untried...for the inflicted misery and murder of many people. Mellow towards him not...an evil man.
Trailer...
Reinaldo Arenas from Glosarte on Vimeo.
The(ir) Blurb...
An examination of Cuba's "moral purges" that began in 1964 with UMAP camps for those suspected of or found guilty of "improper conduct." Key moments brought outside attention to these policies: the defection of ballet dancers in Paris in 1966, a 48-hour period in 1980 when more than 11,000 Cubans sought asylum in Havana's Peruvian embassy, and the brief detention of writer Virgilio Piñera. Interviews with exiles take up most of the film as they tell their stories and ponder the Castro government's arrest and detention of persons with effeminate mannerisms: what the state calls "extravagant behavior." In essence, the film exposes the Cuban state's homophobic, petit bourgeois nature.
Cast & Characters
Lorenzo Monreal as Himself;
Jorge Lago as Himself;
Julio Medina as Himself;
Cesar Bermudez as Himself;
Jose Mario as Himself;
Rafael De Palet as Himself;
Jorge Ronet as Himself;
Hector Aldao as Himself;
Jaime Bellachasse as Himself;
Mireya Robles;
Luis Lazo as Himself;
Caracol;
Reynaldo Arenas as Himself;
Abreu Abreu;
Gilberto Rujiz as Himself