Tania Libre. 2017. USA. Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson. With Tania Bruguera, Dr. Frank Ochberg. In Spanish, English; English subtitles. Digital. 73 min.
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s documentary centers on the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, who, in late 2014, in the weeks following Raul Castro’s and Barack Obama’s public commitments to renew diplomatic ties between Cuba and the US, was repeatedly questioned and placed under house arrest by the Castro government for staging a “treasonous” art performance in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution. An international outpouring of support helped bring about Bruguera’s release, but other Cuban artists, dissidents, and journalists still remain in prison for subversive acts both real and imagined. Tania Libre approaches this subject in a fascinating and novel way, following a therapy session in which Bruguera and Dr. Frank Ochberg, a pioneer in the study of post-traumatic stress, explore the psychological and physical effects of her interrogations and her family past. In Hershman Leeson, Bruguera has found a portraitist who has dedicated more than four decades of radically innovative filmmaking and art to issues of identity, memory, surveillance, and censorship.