FIGHTING THE GIANTS: CASTRO'S REVOLUTION VS THE WORLD

Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SYNOPSIS ...... 3 CONTRIBUTORS ...... 15 NORMA PERCY – SERIES PRODUCER ...... 18 DELPHINE JAUDEAU – DIRECTOR ...... 19 MICK GOLD – DIRECTOR ...... 21 BROOK LAPPING ...... 22 TEMPS NOIR ...... 24

2 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world On 16 December 2014, Barack Obama got on the phone to Cuba’s President Raúl Castro. One of the President’s aides in the Oval Office has told us that Obama’s account of how he saw the situation went on for 15 minutes. When Raúl could get a word in he said ruefully: “I thought I was listening to my brother!” Then he proceeded to talk for 25 minutes.

This phone call was one of the many critical turning points in the tortured relationship between Cuba and the rest of the world. For more than half a century, Fidel Castro’s attempts to carry out an independent foreign policy across Africa and Latin America had caused him trouble with both the West and his Soviet sponsors. This series will allow viewers to hear the inside stories of these exploits from the people who led the revolution, and those who opposed it.

Leading British producer Brook Lapping has an unparalleled track record of getting top political figures across the world to tell what happens behind closed doors. The acclaimed French production company Temps Noir have exceptional access and expertise in Cuba and to rare archive (including a largely unseen cache of 25 hours of recorded interviews with Fidel himself).

Together Brook Lapping and Temps Noir have a unique opportunity to produce a fascinating insider account of 60 years of Cuba’s history, and its place in the world. As the Castro regime finally cedes power to a new generation, there has never been a better time to tell this story.

Castro and his team changed the world in a way that was inconceivable for a mere island in the Caribbean. By sending troops to fight alongside left-wing revolutionaries in Africa, and using soft power to influence other regimes in Latin America, Cuba – in Fidel’s words – "was a small country which behaved as if it had the resources of a great power". Moreover, he managed to get away with it for more than three decades.

Yet this is also a tale of hubris and cock-up. As the regime grew ever more confident, it became almost a pariah state to its close neighbours. While the powerful Soviet Union supported them, the Cubans could operate with impunity. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba was suddenly vulnerable – bankrupt and marooned next to the ever-hostile United States. The regime had to launch a charm offensive with sympathetic governments in Latin America, whilst simultaneously handling an economic and emigration crisis at home. Ironically, this pivot towards Latin America eventually played a key part in the rapprochement with the United States

The series will be full of surprising insights into some of the biggest stories of the 20th Century. Castro, for instance, on his reluctance to have Soviet missiles based on Cuban soil:

"I was unhappy at Cuba being seen as a Soviet base. But we could not expect maximum support from the Soviet camp and yet refuse the Soviets a chance to improve their balance of strategic forces. So we agreed that 42 medium-range missiles would be sent in."

He also tells of his fury when Khrushchev caved in to John F. Kennedy:

"We learned from news media that the Soviets were making proposals to withdraw missiles that they had never discussed with us in any way! Khrushchev should have said to the USA: Cuba must be included in negotiations. They lost their nerve. If we’d been there, the Americans would have had to surrender their Guantanamo naval base. Our relations with the Soviets deteriorated after that."

For the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution in 2019, with views from every side – the Cubans, the Russians, the Americans and the rest – these programmes will reveal the history of Cuba as never before.

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PROGRAMME 1

Programme One starts with revolutionary Cuba's first attempt to change the world. Just 18 months after coming to power, Fidel Castro backed the Algerian campaign against French rule. The Castros and Che Guevara were determined to position Cuba in the vanguard of anti-imperialist struggles in Africa and Latin America. But it was an ambition that was to founder on the relationship between the two superpowers. Forced to defend itself against CIA- backed US attacks – culminating in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion – Cuba agreed to host Soviet missiles and took the world to the edge of nuclear war. With Soviet power waning, Fidel embarked on tentative dialogue with envoys from his former foe, Henry Kissinger. But he sabotaged his own efforts by committing Cuban troops on a massive scale to the battle against apartheid. Fidel claimed victory in Africa, but soon after Cuba lost its biggest sponsor when a weakened Soviet Union decided to end their enmity with the US.

Fidel Castro's revolutionary army entered Havana on 1 January 1959. Just eighteen months later, Cuba gave its first backing to a revolutionary movement - 5,000 miles away in Algeria. Fidel and Che formed a close alliance with the leader Ben Bella. In June 1961, Fidel recognised the rebel government (GPRA) and began to support their struggle. Then, Algeria became a staging post for further Cuban military insurgencies elsewhere in Africa and also in Latin America.

When Morocco invaded Algeria. Cuba airlifted hundreds of soldiers – including a tank company and a field battalion of 122mm guns - into Algeria. They manoeuvred into position for a massive counter-attack on the Moroccan army. The Moroccans caved in and sued for peace. This first Cuban adventure was a great success: victory without any casualties.

But the Cuban revolution had earned the immediate enmity of the United States. The CIA began to plan a full-scale invasion of Cuba, recruiting an army of 1,600 from among Cubans who had fled Castro's regime. The entire population of Cuba was mobilised to meet the threat.

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Victor Dreke, a veteran of the Cuban Revolution and a fighter, told us. "We had tanks in place at Playa Girón but we didn't know how to use them because they were brand new. Mercenaries had secretly infiltrated Cuba and were trying to carry out sabotage. At 5pm we got to Samblá, a small town a few kilometres before Girón. I just disobeyed orders. A friend arrived in a Jeep and I jumped in and we left the tanks behind. Just as we reached a bend we were ambushed. They killed three of my comrades. The driver – like a brother – protected me with his own body and dragged me out of the firing line. It looked like hell. This injury on my arm [shows it to camera] is from the machine gun."

The Cubans saw off the invaders. But the CIA and its Cuban associates retired back to Miami, where they would spend the ensuing decades plotting other ways to overthrow Fidel.

It was, of course, Cuba’s close relationship with the Soviet Union that really worried the United States. This began in 1960, when First Vice Premier of the Soviet Union Anastas Mikoyan visited the island and signed extensive trade agreements. So keen was Khrushchev to make an ally of Cuba, only 100 miles from Florida, that he conceived an audacious plan.

After Khrushchev's summit with President Kennedy in Vienna in June 1961, he warned Cuban leaders that he believed another US invasion was imminent. To put the US off, Khrushchev proposed installing nuclear weapons in Cuba.

Carlos Alzugaray told us about his work in the Ministry of Defence during the Missile Crisis: I was an analyst on US military affairs. I was 19 years old! I had my 45 pistol. By day we dug trenches in the outer defence ring of Havana. At night we went to the Foreign Ministry and worked. I was reading a US government manual on nuclear war. Someone asked me, 'Carlos you have been reading that book. What will happen?' I replied, 'We will see a flash. Then we will be dead.' But surprisingly we slept soundly.

The United States spotted the ships bearing the nuclear weapons and eventually managed to force Khrushchev to withdraw. The Soviets, however, had not consulted their Cuban allies. Their capitulation was the beginning of a slow deterioration between the Cubans and their crucial patron:

Raúl Roa told us about delivering a speech criticising Soviet policy soon after the missile crisis: "When I spoke to Fidel, he was in an angry mood and told me he was furious with Khrushchev for having given in to Kennedy without even securing a written agreement that the U.S. would not invade Cuba. Soon after, I attended the Communist Party Congress of Czechoslovakia. Upon arrival, I was introduced to comrade Brezhnev. He said hello and joked, 'You are going to deliver a very revolutionary speech.' I replied, 'I’ll repeat Fidel’s view on the solution to the missile crisis: War had been avoided but peace was not secured.’ I delivered my speech to very lukewarm applause in the hall. When the session ended, the Soviet ambassador, who was usually friendly, passed me without saying hello, while the North Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese ambassadors all congratulated me.

Fury at what Fidel saw as the untrustworthiness of the Soviet Union merely reinforced Fidel’s determination to support the revolutionary struggle his own way – wherever in the world he could. As Europe quit its African colonies, it failed to leave behind stable regimes. Nowhere was this more

5 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 evident than in the Belgian Congo, which disintegrated into a war zone of competing guerrilla armies. Competing factions were backed by the US, the Soviet Union, China and Belgium. For Che Guevara, this seemed the ideal place to focus his revolutionary ambitions. In 1965, he met the young commander Laurent Kabila, whose forces were fighting army commander Joseph Mobutu. "Kabila understood perfectly that the principal enemy was North American imperialism," wrote Che. He offered him Cuban support, and returned to Cuba to set the wheels in motion.

Victor Dreke is asked to recruit a team of black Cuban soldiers to go the Congo. "Osmany Cienfuegos talked to me about the Congo mission. He said, 'Fidel has decided that you are not going to be the leader of the group. Commander Ramón will be the leader. You are going to be the second in command.” I still wanted to go but I asked myself who is this Ramón?

When we assembled, suddenly Osmany approached with this man, he had a white shirt. Osmany said, 'Are you going to tell me now that you don't know Commander Ramón?' I looked at him and said, No I don´t know him.' Osmany went on joking until Che said: 'Osmany, don´t bother Drekeanymore, I am Che. "

In April 1965, Che arrived in the Congo, leading 60 Cubans. For six months, he and his guerrillas tried to fight alongside Kabila's forces but Che became increasingly disillusioned by the incompetence and infighting of the Congolese rebels.

Harry Villegas fought with Che in the Congo: "Che didn't like the way that Kabila had boxes of whisky and kept drinking. Kabila had three, four or five women. Che didn’t like it but for Africans that was normal. Remember Che was Argentinian and Argentinians are more European than Latin American."

The Congo adventure was a total failure. In November, Che withdrew. With relations still tense with the Soviet Union and the US still plotting its demise, Fidel and Che might have been expected to reduce revolutionary ambitions. Yet, if anything, they grew still further. While Che was considering his next military intervention, Fidel organized the largest gathering of anti-imperialists the world had ever seen.

In January 1966, more than 500 representatives from the national liberation movements and governments of 82 countries met in Havana for the Tricontinental Conference. Their agenda: "to blend the two great currents of world revolution: that which was born in 1917 with the Russian Revolution, and that which represents the anti-imperialist and national liberation movements of today."

Delegates included the revolutionary heavies: Salvador Allende, Ismael Toure and Amílcar Cabral. Fidel Castro was at its heart.

Ramon Sanchez Parodi told us: "Fidel was in his hotel room pacing up and down in his bare feet, plotting with Ramiro

6 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 Valdes the next step in supporting world-wide revolution. 'Latin America, that's the next step!' he said.

It was then that Fidel asked Bolivian Communist Party leader Mario Monje if he would support a group of Cuban guerrilla insurgents led by "a famous commander". The seed was sown.

Che Guevara landed in Bolivia in November 1966. He based his men in a remote location which he believed would give him access to Chile, Argentina and Peru – “to create two, three, many Vietnams”. But the support of Monje and the Bolivian Communists, promised at the conference, never materialized. Che and his guerrillas found themselves stranded in inhospitable terrain without support. Only 11 months later, the Bolivian army, assisted by the CIA, captured and executed Che. The failures in Congo and Bolivia, made Fidel rethink his strategy.

In 1974, Secretary of State Kissinger approached Cuba with the same realpolitik that had just led him to rapprochement with Mao's China. Kissinger tasked his foreign policy fixer Lawrence Eagleburger to meet with Cuban diplomats in a noisy café at LaGuardia airport, the first contact at this level since diplomatic relations had been severed thirteen years earlier.

Nestor Garcia: As we talked in the airport café a blind man was moving from table to table selling pens. He kept coming back. He just wanted money but Eagleburger became very nervous. He said it was the CIA trying to spy on the State Department.

They met again in a New York hotel the following year, and this time they did find some common ground. But Fidel had not abandoned his anti-imperialist ambitions, and the Americans got wind of what he was up to in Angola.

That year, Angola had become independent from Portugal and a new Cold War had opened on the border of South Africa. Agostinho Neto, the leader of the Marxist MPLA and close ally of Fidel, was in control of the capital Luanda. South Africa and the USA backed two guerrilla armies who headed for the capital, determined to defeat the MPLA and seize control.

Fidel transported 36,000 Cuban troops to Angola to reinforce the MPLA. It worked. When Kissinger heard the news he was apoplectic. “How could this pipsqueak challenge the US on the world stage?”

Nestor Garcia: Assistant Secretary of State Rogers read to me Kissinger's authorized talking points. He called Cuba's dispatch of combat troops to Angola 'a fundamental obstacle between us'. Then he stopped reading and said, "Nestor, sorry for the word but you fucked it up. You are in Angola, Nestor. You fucked it up."

Fidel Castro archive film: “Why are they so annoyed? Because they planned to seize control of Angola. The imperialists ask what our interests are. They don’t understand we don’t want the resources. We are not selfish. We are fulfilling our internationalist duty.”

The Cubans fought alongside the MPLA for twelve years. The Cubans signed the treaty which ended the conflict in 1989. Namibia achieved its independence, Angola was secure. Fidel may have

7 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 sacrificed rapprochement with the United States, but his Cuban soldiers had defeated the army of the apartheid regime and its CIA allies - and changed the course of history in Africa.

But this was the high point of his success. By 1989 the Soviet Union, with Mikhail Gorbachev as leader, was more interested in pursuing an economic revolution at home than in sponsoring global revolution. Fidel regarded Gorbachev's ideas of glasnost and perestroika as disastrous. He thought they would destroy the Soviet Union and he was proved right. But the patience of the Cuban regime’s former ally had run out.

Yuri Pavlov, Head of Soviet Foreign Ministry Latin American Directorate: We in Moscow learnt that Castro was far more interested in battles and skirmishes in Angola fought by Cuban troops than in the search for a solution to the economic problems of his country. When the leader did occupy himself with domestic matters, he was more concerned with the ideological purity of the methods than with their performance. For Fidel there was nothing wrong with a quarter of Cuba's GDP coming from the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev's close aide Anatoly Chernyaev wrote in a memo in December 1988:

“I don’t think there’s any hope of persuading Fidel. He’s built his image on […] the romantic period when Cuba was the banner of revolutionary struggle in Latin America etc. etc. He will follow this path to the end, against all common sense, despite the realities in his own country.”

Gorbachev kept inviting Fidel to Moscow to tell him he was now on his own - but Cuba's leader kept declining. In 1989, Gorbachev decided would have to go to Havana himself. When he arrived, Fidel forced him to walk under a huge 'Long live Marxism -- Leninism!' banner. But Gorbachev carried on with his mission. He told Fidel that the subsidies that were keeping the ailing Cuban economy afloat would end.

The last nail in the coffin came with the failure of the Moscow coup against Gorbachev of August 1991. Three of the leaders of the plot to topple Gorbachev and restore the old Soviet Union were ardent supporters of Fidel. With these hard-line supporters in prison, it was the end of Fidel’s alliance with the Soviet Union.

Boris Pankin, Foreign Minister during the last days of the Soviet Union, remembers, "When US Secretary of State James Baker visited Moscow, we told him confidentially about our plan to withdraw our military training brigade of 3,000 men from Cuba. This was a big step in de- ideologising our relationship with Cuba. I was taken aback when, on the way to his press conference with Gorbachev in the Kremlin, Baker looked at Gorbachev with a conspiratorial air and said 'Don't forget to mention the news about Cuba.' I reminded Gorbachev that we had only just sent the instructions to our Ambassador in Havana and he would not have had time to brief the Cuban leadership. Unfortunately I did not have time to counter Baker's ploy.

On 11 September 1991, Fidel turned on the television to see Gorbachev standing next to Secretary of State Baker, announcing his decision to withdraw Soviet troops from Cuba. Fidel plaintively asked Soviet ambassador Yuri Petrov, "What will be Cuba's place in the world?"

A month later, Fidel delivered a defiant five-hour speech to the Communist Party Congress of Cuba.

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“Will we let ourselves become another Puerto Rico?” Castro asked. “No!” The 1,700-strong audience roared back. “Will we let ourselves become another Miami, with all the repugnant rottenness of that society?” “Noooooo!” Was the response.

Their principal ally had abandoned them – yet after 30 years of revolutionary commitment, Fidel was showing no sign of compromise.

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PROGRAMME 2

Programme Two tells how Cuba struggled in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Abandoned by their key economic and political supporter, Cuba was forced to embark on a new foreign policy – based more on soft power. With a massive decline in Cuban living standards, the ensuing refugee crises played havoc with Cuba's already difficult relations with the US. The Cuban Miami exiles stepped up their operations against what they thought was a weakened regime but Cuba's policy of robust self-defence prompted Congress to ratchet up economic sanctions still further. So Cuba turned to new friends and trading partners, notably in Latin America. They exchanged medical aid for much-needed oil from Chavez's Venezuela. This not only helped Cuba's economy, it also paradoxically led to rapprochement with the US under the Obama administration. But with Trump in the White House and Raúl set to step down in April, Cuba's future remains unclear.

In April 1980, Cuba's economy was in a dire state. Its military adventures abroad and dwindling support from the Soviet Union were starting to prove costly. Desperate to get out, Hector Sanyustiz crashed his bus through the gates of the Peruvian Embassy in Havana, seeking asylum. Within days, ten thousand other Cubans also gathered in the Embassy grounds looking for a way out.

Surprisingly, Fidel decided not to stop them. Instead, he ordered a huge boatlift operation out of the port of Mariel.

Fabian Escalante, then Head of Intelligence, was organising the boat lift: "Some colleagues and I took shifts. Fidel never rested and wanted to be kept informed. We worked 24 hours a day. It was very tough. During one of those terrible nights, we mistakenly let go the driver of the bus that started the incident that killed one of our policemen. He had boarded one of the ships.

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When we realised, I went straight to Commander Valdez. He said, ‘You are the one who must tell Fidel.’

Fidel called around 4am. I briefed him on everything. At the end I said: ‘Commander, we have a problem.’ I explained what had happened. There was a long silence. I feared one of his fists would shoot out of the handset and hit me. But he just said: 'One mistake does not make you a bad person' and he started reassuring me."

President Carter welcomed the refugees as 'heroes'. Furious at what looked like a US win, Fidel decided to add criminals and mentally ill to the mix. The US government had chosen Fort Chaffee in Arkansas to host the most unruly refugees. Soon overcrowding made living conditions in the camp explosive. On 1 June, clashes between rioting Cubans and angry locals injured 62 people. Footage of these riots helped defeat Carter in the November elections and destroyed a bid for a second term by the young governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton.

The final collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought Cuba's economy to its knees. Cubans were so hungry they started to eat their pets. The signs in Havana's zoo were changed from the usual 'don't feed the animals' to 'don't eat the animals'. What Fidel called 'the Special Period' triggered a new refugee crisis. On one day 23 August 1994, US coast guards rescued 3,253 Cuban balseros or 'rafters'.

President Bill Clinton urged his team to find a solution: 'Castro has already cost me one election. He can't have two'. When the official negotiators got nowhere, Clinton and Fidel turned to the veteran diplomats who had solved the Mariel crisis 14 years earlier.

Ricardo Alarcón told us: "When Fidel asked me to deal with the crisis, I said 'Ok but the problem is that as soon as I set foot in the US, Peter Tarnoff will call me and he is not on the US official delegation’. And that's exactly what happened.

“Peter began the conversation by saying, 'These people you're meeting during the day should never know we are meeting in the evenings.' I was staying in our UN mission in New York. As a Cuban official I was under close surveillance. The secret service followed me all the time. Police cars were stationed outside the building. So how could I meet Peter Tarnoff without anyone knowing?

"I told the secret services that tonight I was going to stay in. I said I did not need the limousine, so they went home. But the US police guard on the corner was harder to escape. I arranged for a colleague to come with his own car and I lay on the floor. When the car came out, all the police could see was the driver. I waited a couple of blocks and then sat up and dusted my suit.

"I met Peter at the Carlisle Hotel. As we left, we were suddenly surrounded by journalists and flashes. Our hearts sank. We thought we had been found out. But then we realized that it was not us they were after but Woody Allen (who played the piano there every Tuesday)."

The 'wet foot/ dry foot' agreement they reached was a game-changer: Cuba would police its beaches while the US agreed for the first time in 35 years to send back any Cuban seized at sea. It was a rare moment of cooperation between the old foes - but the Cuban-Americans in Miami felt betrayed.

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Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exiles' organisation that helped to direct US coastguards towards the balseros, had now lost its 'raison d'être'. Their President, Bay of Pigs veteran José Basulto, decided to use his planes to drop anti-Castro propaganda on Havana. After a few spectacular missions (some caught on film) Fidel ran out of patience: 'Are you going to wait until they drop a bomb on me before you take action?' he asked his military chiefs. Fidel also sent urgent messages to the Americans. Congressman Bill Richardson was one of the emissaries.

Ricardo Alarcón told us: I was there when Bill Richardson came to see Fidel. And I remember Fidel saying, 'we are very concerned that at any moment an incident might take place with those planes. Please, please tell President Clinton. He needs to do something to stop this'. Richardson agreed to try.

On 23 February 1996, Clinton's special advisor for Cuba, Richard Nuccio, heard another Brothers flight was planned for the next day. He called the Federal Aviation Agency and asked them to rescind Basulto's licence. But they refused.

Audio archive of exchanges between José Basulto and Cuban flight controllers on 24 Feb 1996: Basulto: 'Good afternoon, Havana Center. A cordial greeting from Brothers to the Rescue and its President José Basulto' Cuban controller: 'I inform you that the zone north of Havana is active. You risk danger by penetrating that side of North 24.' Basulto: 'We are ready to do it. It's our right as free Cubans.'

Minutes later, two of the three planes were shot down, though Basulto and his crew survived. As soon as President Clinton heard the news, he convened his National Security Council, under intense pressure to react. After discarding the options of a surgical strike or a cruise missile attack, he decided that politically he had no choice but to bow to émigré pressure and sign the Helms- Burton bill. This tightened sanctions on Cuba and made it compulsory for the President to seek Congressional approval to lift the embargo. In 1998, the FBI arrested the Cuban spies who, they claimed, had provided the intelligence that led to the shooting down of the planes. Tried in Miami, Gerardo Hernandez and his men, 'the Cuban 5', were sentenced to life in prison.

As the embargo got tighter, Fidel turned for help to Latin America, where several left-wing leaders had recently taken over. One of them, Hugo Chávez President of Venezuela, had become a close friend. On 11 April 2002, Fidel received reports that angry crowds had gathered around the presidential palace and were calling for Chávez's resignation. For 12 hours, Fidel desperately tried to contact him. When he finally did, they had an emotional conversation where Fidel persuaded Chávez to seek refuge in Cuba. But the coup leader, General Vásquez Velasco, opposed the plan, took Chavez prisoner.

Chávez asked his daughter, Maria Gabríela, to tell Fidel that he had not resigned and was in fact ‘a president-prisoner'. Fidel told her announce this on TV and asked his Ambassador to call the renegade General.

Germán Sánchez, then Cuban's Ambassador to Venezuela told us: "At 3:15 p.m. I received instructions from Fidel. He said 'Call General Vásquez Velasco, tell him you're calling on my behalf and say that if this goes on there will be a river of blood in Venezuela. Tell him there is just one man who can keep that from happening: 12 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 Hugo Chávez. Urge him to free Chávez immediately. I managed to get Velasco on the phone and gave him Fidel's message."

On the next day, 13 April, the coup leader caved in. Two years later, Chávez and Fidel launched 'Operation Miracle': in return for Venezuela's precious oil, Cuba's world-renowned eye specialists would carry out eye operations to help Chávez keep his promise to teach all Venezuelans to read.

Dr Marcelino Rios, who runs an eye clinic in Havana: “It was 9 July, a Friday night. Most of my staff had left for the weekend. Suddenly I am told that Fidel is coming. I totally freak out as you can imagine. So I gather all the doctors that were there. Eneida Perez was one of them. Fidel arrived in his usual green fatigues and said ‘50 Venezuelans are arriving tomorrow morning. They all need eye surgery. Would you be able to receive them? I turned to Eneida and said: ‘Have you mastered cataract surgery yet?’ She said she had. Eneida and her team spent the whole weekend operating on the Venezuelans. Fidel was very pleased. On Monday he called to say, 'Could you do a few more?' I said, ‘How many more?’ And that's when he told me: I want you to operate on 50 Venezuelans a day.’

The policy was so successful that it was expanded to other countries in Latin America. The goodwill and influence that this 'medical diplomacy' gave to Cuba would soon pay off.

Like many of his democrat predecessors, Barack Obama had come to power determined to improve relations with Cuba. But he was stopped in his tracks when Alan Gross, a 60-year old US contractor, was arrested in Havana. At the 2012 Summit of the Americas in Colombia, Fidel's new partners, President Santos and many other regional leaders, publicly scolded Obama for failing to end the impasse. The pressure galvanised the American President to address the issue.

After his re-election, Obama tasked his trusted foreign policy aide, Ben Rhodes, and his Cuba expert, Ricardo Zuniga, to finally make some progress. In June 2013, they met Alejandro Castro, Raúl's only son in secret in Toronto. The meeting did not go well: the Cubans were ranting while the Americans categorically refused to swap an 'ordinary citizen' for three Cuban spies. The log- jam was broken at an unlikely occasion. When Obama ran into the Cuban President at Mandela's funeral, the Cuban stuck out his hand and said 'Mr President, I am Castro'. 'I know' said Obama smiling. This was the first time an American President in office publicly shook hands with a Castro.

At the next meeting of the negotiators, the US offered a compromise but it fell on deaf ears. Obama's team decided it was time for plan B. Since September, they had sent out feelers to see if the new Pope would help them out. Over the years, the Castro brothers had grown to trust the Vatican, which had never shied away from publicly condemning the US embargo. In March 2014, Obama met Pope Francis, who agreed to try. That summer, the Pope wrote confidential letters to both Obama and Raúl urging them to agree a prisoner swap.

Cardinal Ortega, who has agreed to be filmed, recalls in his book how he delivered the letter: "I arrived in Washington with the Pope's letter and a message. Cardinal McCarrick drove me to the White House and we went directly to the Rose Garden, where President Obama greeted us warmly. Straightaway I passed on Raúl's message: 'I am fully aware of President Obama's desire for rapprochement. I am also aware that he is not responsible for US policies before he came in. I believe President Obama is an honest man but I also know that he is not the only one who makes decisions on Cuba policies.'

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President Obama said he appreciated Raúl's words and he believed that rapprochement was possible.

I then handed him the Pope's letter. He read it immediately, without sitting down, and said, 'How amazing that the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, takes such a great interest in an issue that is so important for my country! This letter is a big help!' (The Cardinal has photos of this meeting.)

It did the trick. Soon after, the Cubans agreed to exchange prisoners and to normalise relations with the US – even though Obama could not promise the embargo would be lifted. On 16 December 2014, Obama sat with Rhodes and Zuniga in the Oval Office for an historic phone call to Raúl (see p1). The next day, they announced their breakthrough simultaneously on television.

As the plane carrying Gerardo Hernandez and his men landed in Havana, the onlookers were shocked to see his wife, Adriana, eight months pregnant! We will tell the story of this bizarre subplot and its impact.

Cuba’s new found success in foreign policy was set to continue. Only a few months after the détente with the US, they played a decisive role in ending another long running conflict – the 47- year-old FARC rebellion against the government of Colombia. Back in November 2011, the peace talks that had begun between President Juan Manuel Santos’s government and the FARC guerrillas had broken down. Fidel stepped in, hosting talks and sending an emissary to the jungle to persuade the new FARC Commander, Timeleón Jimenez, to come back to the negotiating table.

Four years on, as President Obama and his entourage arrived in Havana for their historic visit on Sunday 20 March 2016, it looked like the talks would collapse on a last sticking point. FARC were insisting on stronger guarantees to ensure the safety of their fighters. The next morning, while the eyes of the world were on Obama’s meeting with Raúl, his Secretary of State, John Kerry, joined the talks and told the FARC negotiators - still on the list of US banned terrorist organisations - that his government would guarantee the deal and the safety of the demobilised guerrillas. On 24 November 2016, a peace agreement was signed. The next day, Fidel died.

After Fidel’s death, Cuba finally seemed intent on absorbing the benefits the benevolence of the Obama thaw was bringing to the island. But then Donald Trump was elected. So far, he has made threatening gestures – but there are still around a dozen flights a day between Havana and Florida. Raul has said he will stand down in April. As the 60th anniversary of the Cuban revolution approaches, the story is still far from over.

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Contributors

Note on the interviewees below: * People we met on the development trip to Cuba, December 2017 # People we interviewed for previous series and hope we can interview again.

PROGRAMME ONE

Interviewees in Cuba Fidel Castro, Ramonet interview, CNN Cold War interview. Orlando Borrego, Che adviser. Ulises Rosales del Toro, Cuban army officer in Algeria and General in Angola. Oscar Oramas, Cuban First Secretary Algeria, 1964–66. Darrio de Urra Torriente, Cuban Third Secretary in Algeria, 1963-64. Osmany Cienfuegos, key figure in in supporting revolutions abroad. Godefroid Tchamlesso, aide to Kabila, worked with Che. Currently lives in Kinshasa and Havana. Juan Carretero Ibanez, supervised Che's Bolivia mission from Havana. *Victor Dreke, Cuban Revolution veteran; with Che in the Congo. *Harry Villegas “Pombo”, with Che in the Congo and in Bolivia. *Nestor Garcia Iturbe, Cuban diplomat. *Carlos Alzugaray Treto, Cuban diplomat *Raúl Roa, Cuban ambassador and diplomat. *Ramon Sanchez Parodi, Tricontinental Conference organiser, Cuban diplomat, Ramiro Valdes, Cuban Minister of Interior Raúl Curbelo Morales, Cuban military officer involved in withdrawal of Soviet missiles.

Interviewees in the US Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State, 1973-77. #James Baker, US Secretary of State, 1989-92. Ambassador Frank G. Wisner, US negotiator in Angola-Cuba-US talks. Ambassador Wesley Egan, note taker in secret Cuban-American meetings. Felix Rodriguez, Cuban refugee from Castro regime, joined CIA, hunted Che in Bolivia Jose Basulto, prominent anti-Castro fighter #Eugenio Martinez, veteran of Bay of Pigs invasion force Bernard Aronson, Assistant Secretary of State, Inter-American Affairs, 1989 – 1993. Ambassador Herman Cohen, African Director NSC, 1987-89 Ambassador Larry Napper, Office of Southern African Affairs, Department of State, 1986-89. Ambassador Chas W Freeman Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Yuri Pavlov, Head of Soviet Foreign Ministry Latin American Department, 1987 – 1991; now in USA. Alcibiades Hidalgo, Cuban First Deputy Foreign Minister, 1990-1992; now in USA.

Interviewees in Russia #Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary, Communist Party of Soviet Union, 1985 – 1991 Igor Kurinnoy, Soviet intelligence officer, accompanied missiles to Cuba Sgt. Victor Potelin, Soviet radar engineer Victor Semykin, Soviet army engineer Ivan Shishenko, Soviet Rocket force Niolai Leonov, Mikoyan's interpreter during Soviet negotiations, Castro's interpreter in Soviet Union Dmitry Yazov, Soviet General, later Defence Minister. Vladimir Shubin, head of African desk at the Politburo Yuri Petrov, Soviet ambassador to Cuba, 1988-1991 Valery Nikolayenko, Soviet Vice Foreign Minister, 1989-92 Oleg Baklanov, Central Committee, Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mario Monje, leader of the Bolivian communist party. Now living in Moscow. 15 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318

Others Lakhdar Brahimi, veteran UN peacemaker, then an Algerian diplomat who travelled to Havana. Oswaldo Barreto, Venezuelan based in Algeria who organised arms shipments for Cubans. Regis Debray, supported Che Guevara in Bolivia, lives in Paris. Mario Téran, Bolivlian soldier who killed Che. Boris Pankin, Soviet Foreign Minister, 28 Aug – 19 Nov 1991; now lives in Sweden

PROGRAMME TWO

Interviewees in Cuba Fidel Castro, Ramonet interview, CNN Cold War interview, Jon Alpert interview. President Raul Castro Ramiro Valdès, Cuban Interior Minister. *Ricardo Alarcón, Cuban Ambassador to UN, 1966 – 1978. Cuban Foreign Minister. Alejandro Castro, son of Raúl Castro; lead negotiator in Cuba-US negotiations. Joséfina Vidal, Cuba's negotiator in Cuba-US negotiations. Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Archbishop of Havana, assisted Pope in Cuba–US negotiations. Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, Foreign Minister since 2009 *Fabían Escalante, head of Cuban Intelligence Services. *Gerardo Hernandez, leader of Cuban intelligence group who became known as the Cuban 5. Adriana Pérez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez; her pregnancy through IVF assisted the diplomacy. *German Sánchez Otero, former Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela. Brigadier Gen. Arnaldo Tamayo instructed Cuban military to shoot down Brothers to the Rescue. Betsy Chávez, former wife of Hugo Chavez; now divides her time between Ecuador (where she is a Consul), Venezuela, and Cuba where she has a house. Dr Eneida Perez and Dr Marcelino Rios, instructed by Fidel to carry out eye operations on Venezuelans Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, Cuban Ambassador to South Africa when Mandela died.

Interviewees in the US # President Jimmy Carter # President Bill Clinton; (also Governor of Arkansas.) Hillary could also talk about the Mariel crisis. # President Barack Obama # Ben Rhodes, US lead negotiator for President Obama. # Susan Rice/ Denis McDonough, among the ten officials who knew about the secret negotiations and helped supervise them. # Leon Panetta, President Clinton Chief of Staff. # John Kerry, Obama Secretary of State, secured the breakthrough in Colombia FARC negotiations. Peter Tarnoff, US Department of State, Morton Halperin, NSC Director for Democracy who dealt a lot with Cuba. Dennis Hays, US Department of State. Bill Richardson, US politician who carried out secret negotiations with Fidel. Richard Nuccio, US Department of State José Basulto, Leader, Brothers to the Rescue. David Hinson, FAA administrator involved in Brothers to the Rescue controversy; Dan Burton, Republican Congressman responsible for increasing US sanctions against Cuba. Cardinal McCarrick, helped secure the Pope's help and get his letter delivered to Obama. Senator Patrick Leahy and aide Tim Rieser helped Adriana Perez with IVF treatment. # Senator Dick Durbin, suggested asking the Pope for help Bernard Aronson, US envoy to Colombian peace talks, 2015-2016 Wayne Smith, head of US section in Cuba then. María Gabriela Chávez, daughter of Hugo Chávez, who helped her father during attempted coup. Now Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN in NYC. Filiberto Castineira who supervised the boatlift in Mariel. Now in Florida

16 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 Interviewees in Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos, we have approached him. Timoleón ‘Timochenko’ Jimenez on meeting Fidel's envoy and agreeing to carry on negotiating. Ivan Marquez, FARC negotiator. Humberto de la Calle, government negotiator

Others General Vásquez Velasco, leader of coup in Venezuela, 2002; now lives in Spain. # Ricardo Zuniga, US Department of State negotiator; now US Ambassador to Brazil. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, attended Obama-Pope Francis meeting

17 Fighting the Giants: The Castros' Revolution vs the world 120318 DELPHINE JAUDEAU – DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR CREDITS

Sept. ' 17 - May ' 18 FIGHTING THE GIANTS : THE CASTROS REVOLUTION VS THE WORLD (ARTE, BBC2, 2 X52 MINS) Brook Lapping (GB) To mark the 60th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, this 2-part series will tell the story of the breach Temps Noir (Fr) between Cuba and the West - which lasted more than half a century - and how it was finally resolved

in 2014. - Developed the series, set up the co- production, secured the Arte commission.

Aug 14 – Sept ‘16 INSIDE THE OBAMA'S WHITE HOUSE (BBC2 , ARTE, 4 X59 MINS) PRODUCER/DIRECTOR, EP3 ‘ Don' t Screw i t Up’ Brook Lapping (UK) DIRECTOR of the French series, narrated by Juliette Binoche Les Films d'Ici (Fr) The 3rd episode tells the story of how Obama tried to disentangle America from the Middle East - but failed. It includes revelations about how he handled the Arab Spring in Egypt, the chemical crisis in Syria and worked out a historic nuclear deal with Iran. - Directed prog 3 , developed the whole series – and secured the commission.

Oct ’ 11 – May ‘ 12 SECONDS FROM DISASTER (NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC) 2 X48 MINS PRODUCER/DIRECTOR, ‘Norway massacre: I was there’ , ‘The Nagasaki Bomb’ Darlow Smithson Productions ‘Norway massacre: I was there’ tells the story of Anders Breivik’s killing spree on 22/07/11. - Secured access to Norway’ s special forces and the local police - Directed and conducted all the interviews. - Wrote the script and overlooked the edit

‘The Nagasaki bomb’ questions the idea that it was this bomb that led to Japan’s surrender. - Directed and conducted all the interviews. - Wrote the script and directed the edit

June ‘ 06 – Feb ‘ 09 IRAN & THE WEST (BBC 2 , NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC...) 3 X60 MINS

Brook Lapping PRODUCER/DIRECTOR, ‘The Pariah State’ ( Prog 2 ) Productions Award-winning three-part television history of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s troubled relations with the West told by the key decision-makers on both sides. - Helped develop the whole series – and secure the commission. - Directed Prog 2 about Iran' s failed attempts to rejoin the community of nations.

Winner of 2010 Peabody Award ( USA) Winner of 2009 Grierson Award – Best Documentary series Winner of 2009 One World Media Award – Best TV Documentary (for Prog 2)…

OTHER SELECTED CREDITS

Feb - June ' 17 COUNTER ANTISEMITISM THROUGH TESTIMONY PRODUCER SHOAH Foundation Web series of interviews about anti-Semitism in France, from before World War II to the most recent terrorist attacks in 2015. - Secured, conducted interviews with researchers, specialists as well as relatives of victims of France' s most notorious anti- Semitic attacks...

March – May ‘ 14 DEVELOPMENT PRODUCER (Executive Producer: Simon and Jonathan Chinn) Two sizzles that were respectively commissioned by US broadcasters Netflix and Esquire: Lightbox Media Ltd ‘Captive’ a proposed 8-part series on 8 hostage crises – with a focus on the negotiations that went on behind the scenes. Tracked down interviewees and secured their participation.

‘The Idol Candidate’ an observational film following former American Idol, Clay Aiken, during his attempt to become Congressman of North Carolina. Produced the shoot.

May - June ’ 13 THE ARMSTRONG LIE (SONY PICTURES CLASSICS) PRODUCER (Director: Alex Gibney) Jigsaw productions A feature documentary that recounts Lance Armstrong’s fall from grace. I was more involved in the

19 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world original film - The Road Back (2009/10) – which followed Armstrong on his comeback to the 2009 Tour (USA) de France. It was never released but big chunks of it were used in ‘the Armstrong Lie’.

- Secured and conducted interviews with Merckx, Hincapie, Liggett, Vrijman…

- Archive research

Jan – April ’ 13 COLD WAR AND HOT JETS ( BBC2 ) 2 X60 MINS PRODUCER (Series Producer: Jeremy Hall) BBC Presented by historian, James Holland, the series shows the key role Britain’s jets played in the Cold War – either as spy planes, interceptors or means to deliver the nuclear strike.

- Secured interviews with veterans, relatives of key politicians from the t ime.

- Set up interview shoot and sequences with the presenter in UK, US.

Sept – Nov ‘ 12 THE IRAQ WAR (BBC2 , NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, CANAL PLUS…) 3 X60 MINS FRENCH PRODUCER (PROG1) (Director: Charlie Smith) Brook Lapping A 3-part series on the Iraq war as told by the key decision-maker in America, Great Britain and Iraq. Productions - Tracked down the Franco- Arab informant who fooled the CIA; - Secured interviews with Mr de Villepin and Intelligence officers.

April – June ‘ 11 MARLEY (THEATRICAL RELEASE) 1 X144 MINS ND 2 UNIT PRODUCER (TUNISIA, PARIS) (Director: Kevin Macdonald) Cowboy MF Ltd A feature documentary about the life, the music and the legacy of Bob Marley.

- Interviewed Mrs Bongo, daughter of Gabon’ s former dictator and Marley’s former girlfriend. - Found and f i lmed stories in post- revolutionary Tunisia.

March ’ 10 – Dec ‘ 10 FATHER WENCESLAS (WORKING TITLE) PRODUCER (Director: Elizabeth Jones) Yellow Pad A feature documentary about a Rwandan priest who lives and preaches in France despite being Productions accused of the worst crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide. Film is on hold until his trial. - Secured access to his criminal dossier both in France and Rwanda - Talked to the priests who helped him f lee and to his alleged victims. - Set up shoot in France and Rwanda and some undercover f i lming.

Nov ‘ 04 – June ‘ 06 MY ENEMY’ S ENEMY (MORE 4, US THEATRICAL RELEASE) 1 X90 MINS ASSISTANT PRODUCER (Director: Kevin Macdonald) Yalla Films (France) A provocative journey into the life of Klaus Barbie - as he turns from Nazi war criminal to American counter-intelligence officer and then tool of repressive right-wing regimes in Latin America. - Tracked down r ight- wing terrorists, former US intelligence officers who worked with Barbie, his friend and his victims. - Directed and conducted interview in France, Italy, America and Bolivia.

March - Nov ‘ 04 THE HEADMASTER & THE HEADSCARVES (BBC 2 , THIS WORLD) 1 X59 MINS ASSISTANT PRODUCER/AUTHOR/SECOND CAMERA (Director: Elizabeth Jones) In Focus Productions The story of a group of young Muslim schoolgirls who resisted the French law banning ostentatious religious symbols in state schools. - Found the story and wrote the proposal - Secured cooperation of the girls; their families, their teachers and the school. - Produced the observational shoot over 6 months.

Dec ' 00 – Jul ' 02 THE FALL OF MILOSEVIC (BBC 2 , CANAL PLUS) 3 X90 MINS. (Series Director: Dai Richards) Brook Lapping This sequel to ‘The Death of Yugoslavia’ traces Milosevic’s decline from his heroic return to Serbia Productions after the Dayton peace talks to his arrest and extradition to The Hague. - Secured access to President Chirac and interviewed him at the Elysée. - Assisted the edit of Prog 2 on the war in Kosovo.

EDUCATION & VOLUNTEERING

July 2013 - MAYTREE (CHARITY ORGANISATION) Trained volunteer befriender at this respite centre for people with suicidal thoughts.

Oct ‘ 98 – Sept. ‘ 99 LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS (LSE) MSc in Contemporary History of International Relations Focus: History of the Cold War, Middle Eastern Politics, African Politics

INSTITNUT D’ETUDES POLITIQUES DE PARIS (SCIENCES PO) MSc in Political science (Civil Department) Focus: International Relations

20 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world

MICK GOLD – DIRECTOR

Mick Gold is an award-winning producer/director of documentary films. He co-directed Hostage, a Channel Four series about the hostage crisis in Lebanon which won first prize at the 1999 Festival International du Film d'Histoire de Pessac. Gold has produced and directed many history series for BBC2, including Watergate (1994), a five-hour series about the downfall of President Nixon which won a Primetime Emmy Award. Gold co-directed Death of Apartheid (1995), a three-hour history of how Nelson Mandela negotiated his way out of prison and into power as the first President of an ANC government of South Africa. Endgame In Ireland (2001) won a Peabody Award for its "enlightening exploration of the tortuous complexities of international peace negotiations in Northern Ireland". Gold also produced and directed six episodes of the BBC2 art history series The Private Life of a Masterpiece, focusing on paintings by Dalí, Delacroix, Degas, Goya, Velázquez and Rogier van der Weyden.

In 2013, Gold produced and directed a series on the history of the blues, Blues America, which was broadcast on BBC Four. In 2016, Gold produced and directed The Arc of History, the fourth film in the series Inside Obama's White House produced by Brook Lapping for BBC2, which was nominated for a BAFTA and a Grierson Award.

21 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world BROOK LAPPING

Brook Associates was founded in 1982 and merged with Brian Lapping Associates in 1997. The merged company, Brook Lapping, is renowned for its landmark series on international politics. It has also made definitive series on British political leaders including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair and has run Question Time for BBC1 and A Week in Politics for Channel 4. Brook Lapping led the consortium that won the tender to run Teachers TV for the Department of Education in 2004. It took responsibility for channel management and commissioning with Brook Lapping producing 30% of the channel’s programme content over a period of seven years.

FILMOGRAPHY

▪ “The Iraq War” (3x60' – 2013) by Charlie Smith, Paul Mitchell and David Alter. Production: Brook lapping, BBC, National Geographic, Canal Plus.

▪ “Putin, Russia & The West” (2x52'- 2012) by Paul Mitchell. Production : Brook lapping, BBC, National Geographic, NTV, France 5.

▪ “Iran and the West“ (60' - 2009) by Brian Lapping and Norma Percy. Production: Brook lapping, BBC in association with National Geographic Channel, France 3, NHK, VPRO, SVT, RTBF, VRT, NRK, SRC/CBC, DRTV SBS, YLE, TVP and Press TV, with the support of MEDIA Programme. Awards: Grierson Awards – Best documentary series (2009/2010), Peabody Awards (2009), New York Festival Awards – Bronze medal (2009/2010).

▪ “ Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace ” (3x52' - 2005) a documentary series written by Brian Lapping and Norma Percy, and directed by Dan Edge and Mark Anderson. Production: Brook Lapping, BBC, Arte, PBS et Al-Jazeera. Awards: Royal Television Society Awards (2005)

▪ “The Fall of Milosevic” (3x52' - 2002) by Brian Lapping and Norma Percy Production: Brook Lapping, BBC, Canal Plus, Discovery Channel Awards: Grierson Awards – Best documentary series (2009/2010), Peabody Awards (2009), New York Festival Awards – Gold Medal (2003).

▪ “Endgame in Ireland” (4x60' – 2001) by Mark Anderson and Mick Gold. Production: Brook Lapping, BBC, PBS, Arte, SBS, RTE, YLE. Awards: Peabody awards (2001)

▪ “Playing the China Card” (2x60' - 1999) by Brian Lapping and Norma Percy Production: Brook Lapping, Channel 4, WGBH. Awards: Peabody awards (1999)

▪ “The Death of Yugoslavia” (6x52' - 1995/1996) by Brian Lapping Production : Brook Lapping, BBC Awards: BAFTA Awards– Best documentary series (1995/1996), Peabody Awards (1995/1996), New York Festival Awards – Gold Medal (1995/1996).

▪ “Watergate” (5x52 ‘- 1994).

22 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world Production: Brook Lapping, BBC, Discovery Channel America Prix : New York Festival Awards – Médaille d’or (1994).

▪ “The Washington Version” (1992). Production : Brook Lapping, Discovery

▪ “The Second Russian Revolution” (8x60' - 1991) Production Brook lapping, BBC, Discovery Channel. Prix : Royal Television Society Awards – Best documentary (1991), New York Festival Awards – Silver Medal (1991).

23 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world TEMPS NOIR

Best French producer award 2010 Best young French producer award 2006

Temps noir is a French based independent production company of documentary and fiction films. It was created in 2002. Our films are focused on social, historical and cultural issues. We go television, cinema and all platforms. Key to our films: questioning the way this world is going.

FILMOGRAPHY

Cuba underground (10x7' – 2018) a digital series by Juliette Touin While Cuba is opening up to the World, Cuba Underground is tracking the alternative places of the island, searching for a new rebellious generation. At the borders of legality, skaters, graffers, punks, stylists and tattoo artist are hijacking symbols and adapting the new trends in order to make Havana a true cultural capital again. Cuba Underground is taking us to meet these new cultural mouvements and their main representatives, allowing us to discover this other face of the island as revolutionary as ever. Production : Temps noir / Arte creative

Camino (52’ – 2017) by Catalina Villar et Yves de Peretti A psychiatry pediatrics hospital, in the Parisian suburbs. Worried parents come here because social services, the School or families told them their children are “not like the others”. The waiting list is long, which is giving rise to anxiety among the parents and unease among the caregivers. Production : Temps noir / LCP-Assemblée nationale / Vosges Télévision

Che Guevara, beyond the legend (52’ – 2017) by Tancrède Ramonet Regarding both his caricatures and his hagiographies, Che Guevara was the principal artisan who crafted his own legend. Cinephile, writer, photographer, throughout his existence, he continually staged his life to build the myth that would survive him. He even exposed his own darker side. 50 years after his death, by combining on- camera testimonies, previously unseen documents and little known archive footage, Che Guevara, the myth and his double embarks on an authentic journey to de/reconstruct the image of the "guerillero heroic" retracing the story of a man trapped by his own legend. Production : Temps noir / France 5 / RTBF

Great speeches (5x10’ / 5x1’30’’ – 2017) a digital series written by Aurélie Luneau and Jean Bulot, directed by Jean Bulot. What are the great speeches that made history in their time? The words of Luther King, Churchill, Ibarruri called for resistance, conflict or peace, they illustrated visions of the future or announced the end of a period. What do we know today about these speeches, their contents, their origins or their consequences ? Through different writings and formats, this series aims at telling the story of the great speeches that changed History in their time, and that time has installed in the memory of all. Production : Temps noir / Kino / ARTE GEIE

NO GODS, NO MASTERS (2x70’ – 2016) by Tancrède Ramonet This is the story of Anarchism. By going back over the key events of the last two centuries of social history, the series reveals, for the first time, the origins and destiny of a political trend that has been fighting all masters and all gods for over 150 years. Who exactly are they? Where do those who have always called themselves, anarchists come from and what is their line of thought? Why do we consider their thinking to be confused and their history such a cause for concern? Featuring previously unseen and forgotten archive footage, in addition to outstanding documentation and accounts by world experts, this documentary series recounts the history of a movement that from Paris to New York, and from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, has constantly imbued the world with its freedom and revolt. Production: Temps noir / ARTE France / LCP Assemblée nationale / UR Sweden Nominations and Awards: Festival Itinérance 2016 (Alès, France) / Festival international du film d’Histoire de Pessac 2016 (Pessac, France)

24 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world Beatbox, boom bap around the world (55’ - 2015) by Pascal Tessaud Beatbox, boom bap around the world takes us in the four corners of the Beatbox planet, lead by the artists who thrill the international stage. This unique trip alongside Rahzel and Kenny Muhammad in New York, Flashbox, Alem and BMG in France, to the Berlin’s world championships, reveals a blooming and singular art form, as well as its ancestral roots. Production: Temps noir / France Ô Nominations and Awards: FIPA 2016 (Biarritz, France) - Opening film / Francofolies 2016 (La Rochelle, France) / Urban Film Festival 2016 (Paris, France) / Jecheon International Film & Music Festival 2016 (Jecheon, South Korea) / Festival Les Suds 2016 (Arles, France) / Boom Bap Festival 2016 (Reims, France) / Urban World FF 2016 (New York City, USA / IndieLisboa 2017 (Lisbon, Portugal)

Beatbox Maker Mobile app for Android and IOs by Florent Maurin Beatbox Maker is an invitation to beatbox. Thank as a video game, Beatbox Maker takes the user on a playful course, in whom, thanks to the tutorials of the biggest champions of beatboxing, he will learn step by step, beatbox basics. In the dialer, he can compose musical beatbox sequences, with his own sounds recorded during the “tuto”, and with a sound-library pre-recorded by his great teachers. Production: Temps noir / France Ô / FTV nouvelles écritures Nominations and Awards: Sm@rt Fipa 2016 / Meilleur Service Mobile – Trophée des Apps 2017

The Bride of the Nile (63’ - 2015) by Edouard Mills Affif A recluse village by the Nile Delta, in a traditional Egyptian family. A drama of tragic proportions is being played. Like millions of young girls throughout the world, Heba must marry a man that she hasn’t chosen… This sentimental drama will slowly turn into a tragic family crisis, with secrets, intrigues, renouncement and lies. Production: Temps noir / France Télévisions / LCP Assemblée nationale / TV 2M - Maroc Nominations and Awards: Special mention of the Jury – Best film – Sol E Luna Film Festival 2016 (Palerme, Italie) / Best Documentary - Arab Film Festival 2016 (San Francisco, USA) / Special mention of the Jury - Ahmed Attia Award (Medimed, Spain) 2015 / RAI Film festival 2017 (UK) / VII International Festival of Visual Anthropology "Mediating Camera" 2017 (Moscow, Russia) / Doc Edge Film Festival 2017 (New Zeeland) / FIGRA 2016 / Fidadoc 2016 / ETNOFilm festival 2016 (Serbia) / RIDM 2015 (Canada)

Jacques Chaban-Delmas (52’ – 2014) by Mathilde Damoisel Jacques Chaban-Delmas was a major, and somehow singular, political figure of French political life: youngest general of Resistance at the age of 29, early Gaullist, he went into politics after World War II. Emblematic mayor of Bordeaux, President of the national assembly, Mendes-France’s minister, Georges Pompidou’s Prime Minister, unsuccessful candidate in the presidential elections of 1974, this political portrait retraces 50 years of politics in France. Production : Temps noir / France 3 Aquitaine / LCP-AN

Calamity Jane, Wild West Legend (82’ – 2014) by Grégory Monro August 1901. On a train heading back west, an old woman, lonesome and tired. She fought the Indians alongside Custer, witnessed the birth of Deadwood and was close friends with Buffalo Bill. She was the terror of the plains, the outrage of the saloons, the oddest of her kind. But no one ever knew who she really was. Her name was Martha Canary, her name is Calamity Jane. Production: Temps noir / ARTE France Nominations and Awards: Palm Beach Film Festival / Newport Beach Film Festival / Black Hills Film Festival

Tattoos (55’ – 2013) by Marc-Aurèle Vecchione The stigmata of bad boys for centuries, tattooing has undergone a revolution and its recent huge popularity has made it part of everyday life. It's now seen as an art form in its own right, with its own schools, followers, copycats and geniuses. To understand how in 50 years tattooing have moved from the backstreet to the main stream, we decided to ask those who have shaped its history and contributed to this transformation. From their parlors all over the world, Mark Mahoney, Filip Leu, Paul Booth, Tin-Tin, Lyle Tuttle, Jack Rudy or Shige tell us how they took part to the popularization of tattooing. Production : Temps noir / ARTE France / Resistance Films

Germany, the Art of a Nation (52’ - 2013) by Jean-Baptiste Péretié From Romanticism to Expressionism, from Dadaism to “Degenerate Art”, the film takes us on a fascinating journey through German history. It’s the works of art themselves, by such illustrious German painters as Caspar David Friedrich, Emil Nolde, Otto Dix, Hanna Höch, Georg Grosz and Gerhard Richter that relate all the hopes and torments of the Nation, from the advent of the Empire to the Franco-German wars, and from modernity to totalitarian madness. Skilfully combining paintings and archive footage, the film gives viewers the opportunity to (re)discover key works whilst at the same time plunging them into the compelling cultural, social and political history of Germany, inseparable from the history of Europe. Production : Temps noir / Musée du Louvre / Arte France

25 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world

In the Name of Race and Science, Strasbourg 1941-1944 (55’ – 2013) by Sonia Rolley, Axel & Tancrède Ramonet In November 1944, allied troops discovered 86 horribly mutilated corpses in the basement of the Anatomy Institute at the University of Strasbourg. They were the bodies of Jews gassed at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, built in Alsace on French soil. The discovery unveiled one of most unthinkable and most widely ignored of the Nazi regime's projects. A handful of renowned scientists, adventurists and fanatic soldiers, operating directly under Himmler, were tasked with putting together a collection of skeletons, the goal of the operation was to prove the existence of races and to preserve a trace of the “Jewish race” after it had been wiped out. A sordid affair that encapsulates the Nazis' attempt to wipe out the Jewish people. Production : Temps noir / France Télévisions / RTS Radio Télévision Suisse Nominations and Awards: Clion du meilleur documentaire 2014 – Festival du film historique de Waterloo Festival international du film d’Histoire de Pessac

The Amazons and the Centaur (65’ & 52’ – 2013) by Jackie Bastide Bartabas is an equestrian rider, a state direction and the founder of the worldwide known theatre Zingaro. In 2003, he set up his equestrian art academy in the fairy tale decor of the mythical Versailles’ Royal Stables. He welcomes trainees coming from all over the world who, by chance, are mostly women. In this temple dedicated to the Horse God, these new Amazons – moved by their fascination for the Centaur - unravel the secrets of the mystery still surrounding Bartabas… Production: Temps noir / ARTE GEIE

Africa(s), History of the continent (4x90’) by Alain Ferrari, Elikia M’Bokolo and Philippe Sainteny Compiled of interviews with some of Africa’s most influential figures, incorporating unique never-before-seen archival footage in danger of disappearing, Africa(s), a New History of the 20th Century plunges viewers into the past of a continent long ignored, showing the upheaval of the colonial era and the great adventures in American democracy and unity, as well as fermenting independence movements, civil wars, the chaos caused by global clashes, budding crises and the stirrings of cultural renewal. The empty spaces in our own history are encapsulated in the memory of this continent, oblivious to the West, where our deepest impulses toward development are being brought to bear. Production : Temps noir / INA / France 5

The Céline’s case (52’ – 2011) by Jean-Baptiste Péretié Louis-Ferdinand Destouches’, better known as Celine is now generally regarded as one of the major writers of the twentieth century. Yet, though his art is acknowledged, the man is still disregarded and hated. Now, 50 years after his death, it’s become possible to tell the true life of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches. Production: Temps noir with the participation of France 5.

A Woman’s womb, the politics of reproduction (54’/90’) by Mathilde Damoisel Between 1995 and 2000, more than 300,000 women and some 30,000 men were forcibly sterilized in Peru. In the eyes of Peruvian government officials, South American decision makers and Western leaders, these poor and illiterate Quechua Indians were the great new threat to the future of mankind. Our investigative documentary A Woman’s Womb denounces the scandal of voluntary or forced population control policies. It takes the first close-up look at abuses that recall some of the darkest chapters in human history. For the very first time, our film puts women at the heart of the great challenges facing our world in the 21st century: development, immigration, environmental protection, human rights. As it explores the maze of international population control policies, it sketches the outlines of a great battle that will decide the fate of our species. A worldwide battle that has only just begun. Production: Temps noir / Arte France, with the participation of TSR, with the support of the Région Ile de France and the EU Media Plus Programme Nominations and Awards: FIFDH (Genève) / Festival de Biarritz / Itinéraires Images et réalités de l'Amérique Latine (Bruxelles) / Colores Latinos Americanos (Lille) / Cinélatino Toulouse /Festival de Liège / Festival International du film des droits de l’Homme

Jean Genet (59’ - 2010) by Gilles Blanchard. Jean Genet is both a paradox and an enigma. The film shows viewers Genet’s true place in French and international culture, revealing how his life and work continue to influence our humanity even today. Far from an idealizing biography that Genet himself would have despised, it is a stylized thriller-inspired film that captures Genet’s essence and reveals his universe. Production: Temps noir / Arte France, Région Bretagne Nominations and Awards: Premier Doc / FIFA (Montréal)

26 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world French from Afar (60’) by Jackie Bastide. There are deportation campaigns so subtle that it never occurs to anyone to call them by their true name. The massive transfer of more than 70,000 people from the French-colonized islands to mainland France, organized by the BUMIDOM (Bureau of Migrations for Overseas Departments) between 1963 and 1981, was certainly one such case. This subtle and silent humiliation echoes an even more muffled and far-reaching battle that continues to brew both in mainland France and throughout the entire overseas French archipelago. Production: Temps noir / Canal Overseases production / with the support France Télévisions, the Région Ile de France, the ACSE, and the EU Media Plus Programme. Nominations and Awards: FIGRA / Festival du film insulaire / Les Escales documentaires de La Rochelle / Les Ecrans documentaires

Eliot Ness vs Al Capone (52’) by Patrick Jeudy They should never have even crossed paths. Their stories should never have become intertwined. Their fates should never have melded into one. But sometimes reality is indeed stranger than fiction. With all the punch and intensity of a dramatic thriller, and the precision and depth of a documentary, Eliot Ness vs Al Capone tells the true story of the battle between the Untouchables and Organized Crime. As it tells the story of these two legendary figures, it also describes the two complementary forces that made modern-day America what it is today. Production: Temps noir / Arte France with the participation of RTBF, TSR, TG4 and Planète

Jean-Christophe Rufin, man without borders (43’/52’) by Evelyne Ragot World traveler, doctor, writer, advisor, researcher and diplomat, Jean-Christophe Rufin is an enigma. A hospital director at age 29, vice-president of Doctors Without Borders at 40, winner of the Prix Goncourt in 2001, and currently a member of the Académie française and French Ambassador to Senegal, this high-spirited maverick in his fifties prefers to call himself an anti-hero, knowing that he will always be an outsider in the eyes of a traditionalist country that doesn’t appreciate those who take more rambling paths. As he said in his autobiography: “My life has been one long uninterrupted ambulation. Why am I unable to limit myself to one destiny, and just one?" Portrait of an extraordinary and charismatic man... without borders. Production: Temps noir / Arte France

Cuba, an African Odyssey (2x59’ and 180’) by Jihan El-Tahri From the tragicomic tale of Che Guevara in the Congo, to the triumph of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola, Cuba, an African Odyssey tells the story of the Cuban Internationalists who won all the battles, but ended up losing the war. Production: Temps noir / Arte France / ITVS / BBC with the participation of TV5 MONDE, VPRO, YLE, SBS, RTV Slovenia, with the support of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Région Ile de France and the EU Media Plus Programme.

Colonia Dignidad, a nazi sect in the land of Pinochet (52’ and 85’) by José Maldavsky The Dignity Colony’s résumé is enough to make anyone’s blood curdle: a brothel for pedophiles, recognized as one of the most dangerous sects in the world, a multinational business with turnover well over $100 million, the last Nazi stronghold, a cell for political struggle and destabilization. The Dignity Colony has cast a shadow over some of the most troubling events in the second half of the 20th century. Our investigative documentary looks at its political and financial networks, at the national and international level, and the crimes it has committed or is planning. Dignity Colony, a Nazi Sect in the Land of Pinochet denounces this wide-reaching criminal organization, cutting through the mystery that continues to surround and protect it. Production: Temps noir with the participation of France 5, Alliance Atlantis, Planète, SBS, TSR.

Words are burning us (52’) by Pascal Tessaud From Saint-Denis to Roubaix, with stops in Paris, Aubervilliers and a tiny village in Brittany, Words are burning us takes viewers out to meet a new generation of spoken word poets, who meet in cafes and show halls to perform inventive, energetic, socially committed or lighthearted texts. We take a close-up look at four slam poets: Nëggus, Luciole, Julien Delmaire and Hocine Ben, who share their passion for the spoken word. They tell us about their artistic influences and how slam poetry was born. Pascal Tessaud’s film describes this new booming form of artistic expression that has liberated poetry and invaded working-class hangouts. The entire country has caught slam fever! Production: Temps noir with the participation of France 5, TV5 Monde, CFI, France télévisions distribution, with the support of ACSE, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Sacem. Nominations and Awards: Festival « I Kiffe NY » French Urban Cultures (NY) / World Film Festival (Montréal) / « Celebrate the Word » Los Angeles Poetry Festival / Mosaïques Festival de Londres / Festival Paris Hip Hop Cinéma à la Villette / Festival international du film d’Amiens / Festival du film de Dakar / Ethnographic and Documentary Film Festival from the Periphery de Vidovin (Slovénie) / Festival Slam & Klam de Tanger (Maroc) / Edition des journées du cinéma francophone (Alger, Oran, Constantine) / …

27 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world Space Cowboys (52’) by Myriam Elhadad From the heart of the United States, Cowboys, who mean to compete with the giants of the sector, launch themselves to the conquest of space tourism astride low cost rockets. Around the opening of the first private space airport and the organisation of the X-Prize Cup – aero-spatial race in the desert of New Mexico-, Space Cowboys introduces us to these new flying madmen developing wonders of inventiveness and basing themselves on the latest scientific and technological discoveries to create their crazy machines. Who are they? What challenges have they set for themselves? What will be their role in the revival of a space conquest that is finding it hard to pick up momentum? France. Production: Temps noir with the participation of France 5.

The Shadows of devil’s island (52’) by Patrick Barbéris and Tancrède Ramonet Precursor can be found to the prison horrors of the XXth century, in the penal colony of French Guiana: a convict prison set on an archipelago, which made the lives of countless men a never-ending tragedy. Based on previously unpublished archive pictures, classified files from the prison administration, personal documents and first hand testimonies, The Shadows of Devil’s Island tells the extraordinary adventures of four anonymous convicts who were among the last to survive this concentration camp-style colony of France. Production: Temps noir / Arte France with the participation of Alliance Atlantis, France 3, RFO, and the support of the Ministère de l’Outre-Mer.

When tomatoes get angry (26’/43’/52’) by Andréa Bergala Oval, in bunches, round; cherry or cocktail; red, yellow, green or black, tomatoes are the most popular fruit in the world. There are more than one thousand varieties, yet only five are widely consumed. Following the legal and illegal chains, When tomatoes get angry reflects on the standardisation of taste and its economic consequences in these times of food industry globalisation. Production: Temps noir / INIT Productions / Arte France with the participation of Raï-SAT, RTBF, Planète, and the support of the Région PACA.

Jacqueline de Chambrun, never give up (52’) by Axël Ramonet A portrait of Jacqueline de Chambrun, the untiring champion of liberty, equality and fraternity. Our documentary recounts 80 years of struggle to create a more just world, chronicling de Chamburn’s involvement in the Spanish War, the battle to protect illegal aliens, the fight for abortion rights, and the battle to protect children’s rights. Production: Temps noir with the participation of LCP, Téléssonne, with the support of the Defense Ministry, the ACSE, the Conseil Général de la Seine Saint Denis and the région Languedoc-Roussillon.

L 611.1, l’inspection du travail (52’) by Jean-Yves Cauchard Created 112 years ago, the body of Works Inspectorate wanted to impose the law at the heart of the labour world. Very soon they were nicknamed the High Flyers of the Republic. What has that profession become, faced with the economic, financial and social challenges that rule political debates world wide.

Production: Temps noir with the participation of France 5, Planète and the support of the Ministère du travail

Pagnol et Compagnie (52’) by Alain Ferrari Portrait of playwright, mathematician, poet, essayist, Provencal producer Marcel Pagnol who remains even now the most read French author in the world and one of France's most popular directors.

Production : Temps noir / Dominant 7 / Arte France with the participation of ARTV, France 3 méditerranée.

Name ID, Fidel Castro (7x52’) by Axël Ramonet Name ID, Fidel Castro is an oral autobiography of one the last surviving myths of the 20th century. In these exclusive interviews, the Cuban leader goes back over 80 years of political struggle, sharing his version of the Cuban Revolution and his thoughts on the world, from the Cold War to the present day. Production : Temps noir / Dominant 7 / INA / Histoire

28 Fighting the Giants: Castro’s revolution vs the world

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