Nicolás Guillén Landrián

Who was Nicolás Guillén Landrián?

Nicolás Guillén Landrián was a Cuban experimental filmmaker and painter.

Guillén was an accomplished filmmaker. He made a total of 13 documentaries, although they were heavily censored and prevented from being part of the Cuban Film Industry. In 1964, he was given a special award at the Krakow Film Festival for his film En un barrio viejo. In 1968, his documentary Coffea Arabiga featured the Beatles' song "The Fool on the Hill" as Fidel Castro appeared on screen. That same year, Guillén was accused of plotting to assassinate Castro. The Cuban government interrogated him for six months in Villa Marista. From 1970 to 1989, he was repeatedly jailed and institutionalized. He received at least eight treatments of electroconvulsive therapy, never under sedation.

As painter he taught René Portocarrero and Victor Miquel Moreno Piñeiro in painting.

In 1989, he was able to flee Cuba and lived the rest of his life in Miami, Florida. He died of cancer at Mercy Hospital in Miami. After his death, his widow had his body flown from Miami and entombed in Colon Cemetery, Havana in Cuba. His uncle was Afro-Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén. Filmmakers Victor R. Jiménez Sosa, and Jorge Egusquiza produced a biographical documentary of Nicolás Guillén Landrián in his own words, Nicolás: the end but not the end, by Coincident Productions.