Film Screening: María Antonia (New 4K Restoration)
December 2, 2025 - 6:00 pm
Segal Theatre
The Graduate Center, CUNY
Film screening followed by a Q&A Session
Co-sponsored by The Columbia University Cuba Seminar
María Antonia (1990) – Directed by Sergio Giral
Set in 1950s Havana, the film follows María Antonia, a proud, rebellious, and fiercely independent woman whose beauty and spirit captivate everyone around her. Defying social expectations and the men who try to control her, she navigates a turbulent life marked by passionate love affairs, betrayal, and conflict. Her determination to live on her own terms clashes with the rigid norms of her community, leading to tragic consequences. Adapted from Eugenio Hernández Espinosa’s acclaimed play, the film is both a vibrant portrait of a woman’s fight for autonomy and a powerful commentary on gender, class, and destiny in pre-revolutionary Cuba.
Jerry W. Carlson (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is professor and a historian of narrative forms with special expertise in narrative theory, the history of the novel, global independent film, and the cinemas of the Americas. From 2013 to 2022 he served as Chair of the Department of Media & Communication Arts at The City College CUNY. In addition, at the CUNY Graduate Center he is a member of the doctoral faculties of French, Comparative Literature, and Film & Media Cultures and a Senior Fellow at the Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies. He has lectured at Stanford, Columbia, Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (Cuba), the University of Paris, and the University of Sao Paulo, among others. His current research is focused on how film and prose fiction from the Global South portray the histories and legacies of slavery, imperialism and colonialism. Moreover, he is an active producer, director, and writer with multiple Emmy Awards. As a Senior Producer for City University Television (CUNY-TV), he created the series City Cinematheque about film history, Canapé about French-American cultural relations, and Nueva York (in Spanish) about the Latino cultures of New York City. As an independent producer, his work includes the Showtime Networks production Dirt directed by Nancy Savoca and Looking for Palladin directed by Andrzej Krakowski. In 1998, he was inducted by France as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques.
Curator & Moderator: Jerry W. Carlson, Senior Fellow, The Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies & Professor, The City College & Graduate Center, CUNY
TO REGISTER send email to bildner@gc.cuny.edu
