(2012, 33 min.)
A Short Documentary by Catherine Murphy

Followed by an audience Q&A with visiting members of the Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association.

Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women.

MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island—and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.

Catherine Murphy is a San Francisco-based filmmaker who has spent much of the last 10 years working in Latin America. She is founder & director of The Literacy Project, a multi-media documentary project on adult literacy in the Americas.

As an independent producer, Murphy's work has largely focused on social documentaries. She has field produced films like Saul Landau's Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?, Eugene Corr's From Ghost Town to Havana, served on the production crew of Gay Cuba; and subtitled Stealing America by Dorothy Fadiman, Jaime Kibben's The Greening of Cuba, and Out and Refuseniks by Sonja de Vries. She also served an archival researcher for Susanne Rostock's recent biography of Harry Belafonte, Sing Your Song.

Murphy served as senior staff producer at the TeleSur TV Washington bureau in 2006 and has produced content for PBS, TeleSur, Avila TV, Pacifica Radio National, WBAI and KPFA.

"This film brought tears to my eyes. Thank you. It is beautiful."
- Alice Walker

"Catherine Murphy's project rescues the most important literacy experience in the Americas. Her protagonists share their own experiences, each telling a formidable collective adventure. Catherine has dedicated her time, energy, and talent to this project. The result, I am certain, will rise to the challenge."
- Eduardo Galeano

"The Cuban Literacy Campaign is an important but little-known chapter in the history of the Americas. Catherine Murphy has created a project with rare and intimate access to this history. Her documentary MAESTRA brings together moving interviews with living witnesses, beautiful archival film footage, and Catherine's compelling storytelling. Based on personal testimonies of teachers and students from the campaign, her film will preserve the oral histories of a generation that will soon be gone. The historical significance of this archive—and its lessons for the present—cannot be overstated.
- Howard Zinn

"Catherine Murphy's film shares this story of a nation overcoming illiteracy, showing that great things are possible when people organize and work together. I believe this film will make a significant contribution to our understanding of our neighbor nation of Cuba—as well as literacy itself—and serve as an important tool in the struggle for justice."
- Dolores Huerta