Modernization and Ambivalence in Octavio Cortázar’s Por primera vez

This article examines the Cuban documentary film Por primera vez by film-maker Octavio Cortázar (1967). This film has been an important symbol of film culture in Cuba following the revolution in 1959 for both Cuban and international film critics. By framing the film within its broad critical reception, I argue that the documentary remains a complicated postrevolutionary text that indexes Cuba’s ambivalent relationship to modernization in the late 1960s. I draw particular attention to the role of Charlie Chaplin in the documentary, arguing that he serves as a symbol of an ambivalent relationship to modernity and modernization.