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From an ad in November's Sight and Sound -

"COMING IN 2006 FROM MR.BONGO FILMS/SOY CUBA PLUS O MAMUTE SIBERIANO PLUS SCORSESE INTERVIEW ON DOUBLE DVD PACK"

And a bit of info from the site.

Hmm ... going by the info at the website, it appears this will be a port of the 2000 Milestone/Image release. Milestone has recently been distributing new 35mm prints of the film, in honor of the 10th anniversary of its US premier.

It would sure be nice if Mr. Bongo could include the well-received 2004 documentary, I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth (or if Milestone--or Criterion or whoever--would do the same by putting out a new special edition).

FilmFanSea wrote:It would sure be nice if Mr. Bongo could include the well-received 2004 documentary, I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth (or if Milestone--or Criterion or whoever--would do the same by putting out a new special edition).

"COMING IN 2006 FROM MR.BONGO FILMS/SOY CUBA PLUS O MAMUTE SIBERIANO PLUS SCORSESE INTERVIEW ON DOUBLE DVD PACK"

I'd say he is.

For those who don't know, I Am Cuba is visually one of the most deliriously, gratuitously eccentric documentaries ever made. You need to see it at least once. If you're a Suzuki fan, this could be a blind buy.

zedz wrote:For those who don't know, I Am Cuba is visually one of the most deliriously, gratuitously eccentric documentaries ever made. You need to see it at least once. If you're a Suzuki fan, this could be a blind buy.

Documentary? Suzuki? That's puzzling.

yoshimori wrote:

zedz wrote:For those who don't know, I Am Cuba is visually one of the most deliriously, gratuitously eccentric documentaries ever made. You need to see it at least once. If you're a Suzuki fan, this could be a blind buy.

Documentary? Suzuki? That's puzzling.

I should think that he's referring to them both being 'deliriously, gratuitously eccentric'.

N. W. wrote:I should think that he's referring to them both being 'deliriously, gratuitously eccentric'.

Yeah, and the fact that the subject matter is maybe the least interesting thing about them: it's all about style. Documentary, schmockumentary.

According to an email from Milestone, Region 1 won't be seeing a special edition of I Am Cuba/I am Cuba, the Siberian Mammoth:

We tried to get rights to The Siberian Mammoth, but Sundance bought the rights instead.

Get ready for another disappointment. According to Anthony Nield's fine review at DVD Times of the R0 PAL UK edition from Mr. Bongo:

Disappointingly, however, the disc comes without a single extra. The US Image release offered only a trailer, but in this case we were promised a two-disc edition complete with Vincente Farraz's feature-length documentary Soy Cuba, O Mamute Siberiano/I Am Cuba, A Siberian Mammoth, plus an interview with Martin Scorsese which cropped up on the French release. Indeed, they would no doubt have made for terrific extras, but alas this is not to be.

Damn.

Mr Bongo is rereleasingSoy Cuba as a 2 disc set with the 2005 documentary Siberian Mammoth, plus the interview with Martin Scorsese. Better late than never...

Mr Bongo is rereleasing Soy Cuba as a 2 disc set with the 2005 documentary Siberian Mammoth, plus the interview with Martin Scorsese. Better late than never...

I see... Good news indeed. I presume this is the same as the Milestone R1 release which too is a two DVD affair. Their (Milestone's) specs are as follows:

Both Spanish and Russian Soundtracks
Full-length doc, THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH
Full-length doc, FILM ABOUT MIKHAIL KALATOZOV
Long Interview with Martin Scorsese
Interview with co-author Yevgeney Yevtushenko
Original American trailer
Full-length booklet
and more!

This is also in the New Yorker thread:

Milestone specs for the 3-disc I AM CUBA (release date: Oct. 23):

Disc 1 - new high-def master from original Russian 35mm fine grain interpositive; video interview with Martin Scorsese; language tracks in Russian and Cuban with English subtitles; Cuban version of opening credits; original Milestone trailer; stills gallery

Disc 2 - THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH (2005), 91-minute documentary about the making of I AM CUBA; 10-minute City Cinematheque interview with screenwriter Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Disc 3 - A FILM ABOUT MIKHAIL KALATOZOV (2006), 120-minute documentary

assuming they don't screw this up, the New Yorker set is another contender for release of the year

domino harvey wrote:assuming they don't screw this up, the New Yorker set is another contender for release of the year

It's a Milestone release--NYer just distributes it, like the Watkins/Project X releases--so it shouldn't get screwed up.

tavernier wrote:

domino harvey wrote:assuming they don't screw this up, the New Yorker set is another contender for release of the year

It's a Milestone release--NYer just distributes it, like the Watkins/Project X releases--so it shouldn't get screwed up.

I'm in sporadic contact with the folks at Milestone. (Nice people, by the way.) And they seem committed to doing this disc right. (To be honest, I didn't think their first release was all that bad, though I know the Russian narrator annoyed a lot of viewers.) They were fighting for months to get the rights to SIBERIAN MAMMOTH, but the Kalatozov docu was something I didn't expect but will be extremely interested to see. Maybe it can drum up some interest in some of his unreleased films, like The Unopened Letter and Salt for Svanetia.

tryavna wrote:(To be honest, I didn't think their first release was all that bad, though I know the Russian narrator annoyed a lot of viewers.) They were fighting for months to get the rights to SIBERIAN MAMMOTH, but the Kalatozov docu was something I didn't expect but will be extremely interested to see. Maybe it can drum up some interest in some of his unreleased films, like The Unopened Letter and Salt for Svanetia.

I have to agree with you tryavna, I thought the original disc was ok, I was just very glad to have the opportunity to see the film.

Let's hope The Unopened Letter and more follows shortly.

So does the R2 have Siberian Mammoth or not? Maybe the DVD Times disc was just a preview one with no extras.

Yes. Details.

tryavna wrote:They were fighting for months to get the rights to SIBERIAN MAMMOTH, but the Kalatozov docu was something I didn't expect but will be extremely interested to see.

I saw Film About Kalatozov last fall at the Tbilisi International Film Festival. The director is Mikheil Kalatozishvili, Kalatozov's grandson. It's pretty good, especially for viewers who are unfamiliar with Kalatozov's work. I was hoping it would include clips from the notorious propaganda film The Conspiracy of the Doomed (1950), but it focuses mainly on the "good" films of his career.

I find it quite amusing that Peter Bradshaw (critic for the Guardian in the UK) is quoted as saying:

"Beautiful... Visually dazzling... Miraculous... I am baffled as to why it isn't in everyone's Top 10 lists" 5/5, Peter Bradshaw, THE GUARDIAN

When it's not in his own Top 10.

I first heard about I Am Cuba through a small section in The Guardian some years ago, of course written by Bradshaw, who described the film, pretty much as above, but it was one still (the one they used for the cover) that drew me like a moth to the flame to this film. I was so pleased when it was released. Now that I have suppressed that urge by watching the film I now find this release a little anticlimactic. Is there any reason I should be excited? Is the doc really worth it?

I got this on Criterion laserdisc back in about 1996, when it was around US$50 with no extras, and felt it was money really well spent. But that was after buying a few disappointing films, and being an overpaid magazine editor. I think you have to be in the mood, and open to something as unexpected and standalone as this. It also might help if you have a large jug of rum and coke to hand, and a stick of sugar cane to chew on.

Screencaps of new UK DVD

Gorgeous!