Me Too in Cuba: Four students denounce sexual abuse at film school

The Me Too movement is back in Cuba, and once again, its ground zero is in the world of independent media. Cuban magazine El Estornudo published a report on the sexual abuse and impunity suffered by four women, two of Spanish nationality, during their studies at the renowned International School of Film and Television in San Antonio del los Baños, one of the foremost audiovisual training facilities in the world, which was founded 37 years ago as part of an initiative propelled by Fidel Castro, Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez and Argentinian filmmaker Fernando Birri.

After a two-year investigation, the March 25 report by Cuban journalist Mario Luis Reyes brought to light testimonies from the women that accuse students, professors and even the school’s director of rape, sexual abuse, assault and revictimization. Their allegations have had a major impact on the school’s community, members of which come to attend classes from their homes throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia, in addition to Cuba’s own film industry.

One of the Spanish victims, who along with the other women requested anonymity, arrived in 2019 to take a course on directing actors at the school, which is located in the Artemisa province, an hour from the center of Havana. At the campus, she was raped by the Panamanian composer, sound designer and guitarist Ayrton Paul. “I woke up because I felt something inside my body, and that’s when I saw that he was penetrating me,” stated the victim. She then went through a period of revictimization by professors, academic coordinator María Julia Grillo and the school’s director Susana Molina, who forced her to repeat the account of what had happened in front of her assailant.

“In addition to the rape, the treatment I received from the prosecutor’s office and the school itself really affected me. While I was there on my own, I kept going, but when I got to my home in Spain, I realized that I didn’t have to live through or tolerate this,” said the former student. During her time in Cuba, she even called a help line for Spanish victims of gender-based violence at the Spanish consulate, but failed to receive any kind of support. “I called and, even though at first, they directed me to some resources, when I told them I had filed a police report, their response was quite vague. I felt abandoned. Neither the school, the prosecutor’s office, the Cuban government, nor that of my own country cared.”

The other Spanish victim, who also went to San Antonio de los Baños in 2019, said that she had been assaulted by a student who took advantage of her when she was drunk, bringing her back to his room and sleeping with his arms around her. When more than one of her classmates asked about what had happened, the young woman opted to not go public about the situation. “One feels like they’ll be judged, and prefers not to talk about it. There’s also a fear that you’ll be labelled,” she said.

The other two victims allege that they were assaulted or abused by students and professors who still work at the school. According to one of the testimonies, the school “seems to care little or even not at all” about cases of sexual abuse. Despite multiple students approaching the deans and administrators to inform them of situations of assault, abuse and rape, they hardly received a response. “We never had training on sexual education or prevention, or on mental health conditions,” said one of the victims.

Four days after the report was published, the school put out a statement in which it acknowledged its events, though it did not mention the independent publication that had published the investigation, nor did it explicitly admit to the abuse having taken place. At the same time, it attempted to rehabilitate the reputation of the institution, at which great figures of the film industry have taught, such as Francis Ford Coppola, Emir Kusturica and Lucrecia Martal. “We are deeply distressed by the published statements, as we were when we learned of some of the cases,” stated the school. “The testimonies fill us with pain and again, call for necessary discussion in our community. We are learning how to deal with these situations.”

The school’s statement also mentioned that the institution had implemented a so-called “peaceful coexistence protocol,” which was created in 2022 but not formally approved until November 2023. It also spoke of having created workshops informed by a gender-based perspective, a wellness office to manage situations involving conflicts and violence, a committee on gender-based issues and a 24-hour emergency system for victims. Institutions like the Cuban Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industries, the Ministry of Culture and the state-run press have yet to comment on the allegations. One week after the report was published, on March 8, the Federation of Cuban Women gave an award to the school’s director, Molina.

Many filmmakers and alumni have questioned the school’s statement on social media, with some considering it “insufficient” and “revictimizing”, and others dubbing it “shameful”. Various former students have also gone public with similar experiences of abuse at the film school.

“This kind of report, although it focuses on specific cases, also encourages collective reflection on the issue and puts pressure on the authorities to change their organizations,” says Reyes, the author of the article, who in 2021 published another report on allegations of sexual abuse against Cuban troubadour Fernándo Bécquer. That investigation not only became one of the primary cases of Cuba’s Me Too movement, but was also the first time that the country’s government prosecuted a case based on a complaint made by a publication that is not state-run. “It’s important because justice in Cuba does not act effectively against this kind of attack, which puts women in a highly vulnerable situation. Although the problem of gender-based violence is hardly exclusive to Cuba, Cuban women are currently in a very serious situation,” Reyes continues.

Independent platforms that work on gender issues on the island, like YoSíTeCreo, MeTooCuba and the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory, have amplified the allegations and have repeated what they have been saying for years about the need for a law against gender-based violence in a country that tallied 89 femicides in 2023 — compare this to 55 deaths caused by gender-based violence during the same period in Spain, a country with four times the population of Cuba — and that has already seen 15 femicides so far this year.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition