Once they assembled full halls: the wilted beauty of Cuba's old movie theaters
Before the revolution, Cuba was the golden era of cinema. Only in Havana in 1953 there were 134 cinemas, in Paris and in New York in the mid-1950s there were much fewer such establishments. About 700 cinemas and theaters operated throughout the island. Going to the cinema was one of Cuban’s favorite pastimes of all ages.
Then most of the cinemas belonged to American companies. After the completion of the Cuban revolution, they all became empty and began to decline. The regime has changed in the country, and society has changed. Only a small part of these cinemas works today, most of them have been remade into some kind of our creative houses, where local dance and theater groups are engaged, others are generally abandoned. Italian photographer Carolina Sandretto spent four years in Cuba and during that time put together a collection of photographs of what remains of the golden era of cinema.