Waiting for Fidel

A watershed moment in the evolution of the documentary, Waiting for Fidel was the first film of its ilk to "break the fourth wall" by showing director Michael Rubbo as a participant in the story being told. It's a technique that has helped make box-office hits of Michael Moore's movies, but in this fascinating, fly-on-the-wall short feature from 1974, it's more a matter of necessity when the film crew and two self-appointed Canadian civilian emissaries (capitalist broadcasting millionaire Geoff Stirling and socialist ex-Premier of Newfoundland Joey Smallwood) are stood up by El Presidente for an interview. Still hoping to get Castro on camera, which was the whole purpose of their visit to the communist island nation, they putter around their elegant diplomatic hacienda waiting for word, and tour schools, housing developments, and the Bay of Pigs (site of the infamous botched 1961 U.S. invasion), while also having heated debates about the merits of Castro's political and social systems (and about Rubbo's vision for the evolution of this very film, for which Stirling is paying). Rubbo presents an evenhanded view of the still-relevant issues that Waiting for Fidel addresses, while also recognizing that the film is all the more fascinating for what it became rather than what it was intended to be. DVD extras include an hour of decades-later interview footage with Stirling and Rubbo about the making of the film. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Blackwelder)