A screening and conversation with the filmmaker of Whispering Cave, a documentary short tracing the discovery of Ana Mendieta's lost cave sculptures in Jaruco, Cuba.

In 1981, the renowned artist Ana Mendieta created several sculptures in the caves of Jaruco, Cuba at two different sites. Art historians and close friends of the artist have long presumed that one of the sites had been destroyed. In 2015, the artist’s niece, filmmaker Raquel Cecilia, visits Jaruco and stumbles upon a clue to the lost caves’ existence. Led by intuition and research, she returns to Jaruco two years later, and with the help of two Cuban artists, her young daughter, and the Director of Havana’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the filmmaker journeys through the Cuban countryside in search of the truth.  Using her aunt’s Super 8 footage and photographs as a guide, Raquel retraces her footsteps, ultimately reconnecting her with her aunt and her legacy.

This screening is co-presented with Galerie Lelong & Co., and The Feminist Institute with the Eva Hesse Charitable Foundation.

About the director

Raquel Cecilia is a filmmaker, writer, and video artist most known for her recent films on her aunt, artist Ana Mendieta. Her films have screened at film festivals and art museums across the world, such as Frameline in San Francisco, BFI’s Flare Festival in London, The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin and more recently at Middelheim Museum in Belgium. Cecilia is the Associate Administrator for the Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection and was responsible for overseeing the digital restoration of the artist’s works on film and video. She is currently working on a feature length documentary about the life and art of Ana Mendieta.  Whispering Cave premiered in Paris at the Jeu de Paume in October 2018, and in the United States at the de la Cruz Collection in Miami in September 2019.  It will also screen in Madrid at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in February 2020.