They werenвЂ™t picked out by the government, they were picked out by fate. вЂњThese are the people I happened to meet. вЂњIt is a very unique subsample (of people), and a very personal subsample, to some degree a sample based on serendipity and happenstance,вЂќ he said. вЂњEver since then, he took a shine to me and we became good friends.вЂњД«esides Castro, Alpert follows three families through the ups and down of modern Cuban history. вЂњAnd so humbled, the next time I got near Fidel, I almost tackled him,вЂќ Alpert recalled. Later, AlpertвЂ™s wife and her cousin chastised him, pointing out that they were able to do their jobs of holding the microphone and the camera, while he was fumbling his duties. Courtesy Jon Alpert/NetflixДЄlthough Alpert had been seeking access to Castro for several days, when the Cuban leader approached him, the filmmaker became tongue-tied. вЂњDespite the efforts of his security guards to sort of control him, he broke through and came over to see us.вЂќ Jon Alpert and his wife filming in a village outside Havana, 1974. вЂњHe saw these strange young people pushing a baby carriage around, and he wanted to know what was going on,вЂќ Alpert said. Because their equipment was so cumbersome, they wheeled it around Cuba in a baby carriage, a makeshift technique that proved fortuitous when Castro noticed them. AlpertвЂ™s camera crew, in the early days, was his wife and her cousin, usually with his young daughter in tow. This began a nearly five-decades long connection with the island.

We decided we wanted to see for ourselves.вЂќ вЂњAnd a lot of the things we were fighting for, we heard were being implemented in Cuba but we also heard that people were unhappy about what was going on.

вЂњInitially I was very curious about Cuba we were doing community organizing in Chinatown and the lower east side (of Manhattan), fighting for better housing, fighting for better schools, fighting for better jobs вЂ“ and failing spectacularly,вЂќ he told NBC News. AlpertвЂ™s latest film, ' Cuba And The Cameraman' premieres on Netflix and in select theaters on Friday, November 24 вЂ“ one day short of the first anniversary of CastroвЂ™s death.ДЄlpert, 68, first went to Cuba as a young community activist. Through many visits, Alpert came to befriend Cubans as well as Fidel Castro himself.

He began visiting the island in 1972 as a documentarian, wanting to see for himself whether the revolution was working. For over 45 years, award-winning journalist Jon Alpert has been fascinated by the people and culture of Cuba.

Cuba and the cameraman