The Life of Juanita Castro

The Life of Juanita Castro
Movie poster for The Life of Juanita Castro
Directed by	Andy Warhol
Written by	Ronald Tavel
Starring	Marie Menken Ultra Violet Mercedes Ospina Ronald Tavel
Distributed by	Andy Warhol Films
Release date	1965
Running time	66 mins.
Country	United States
Language	English

The Life of Juanita Castro (1965) is an American underground film directed by Andy Warhol, filmed in March 1965.

A playwright (Tavel) taunts a number of actresses into improvising a play on Fidel Castro and his family, at a time when the revolution was bringing back disquieting stories of executions and imprisonments and, particularly, virulent hatred and torture of homosexuals in Cuba.

Several of the play's male characters (Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, and Che Guevara) are played by women. The actresses face a camera they believe is filming them, while in fact they are being filmed by another camera placed off to one side. At times they are directed by Tavel to perform pointless acts in unison. According to reviewer Tom Vick, the film "rewrites history as a high-camp farce," poking fun at machismo and totalitarianism.