Cuba Libre Civic Association presents:

Why Do We Want to Talk about Cuba?

Screenings:

Benigno, Farewell to a Revolution
2005, Holand, 55 min.
Director: Marlou van den Berge

After government forces burn his farm and murder his wife, Daniel Alarcon (aka El Benigno, “the kind one”) joins Castro’s rebels at age 17. Years later, as a revolutionary hero, he escapes the ambush that took Che Guevara’s life, returns to Cuba and becomes disillusioned. Rare footage of Che and Castro; a powerful study in broken idealism.

Suite Habana
Havana Suite
2003, Cuba, 80 min.
Director: Fernando Perez

This film shows the strict reality and the brights from the people in Havana. It shows the true situation of the Cuba that the tourists are hard to find in the resort area.

Each people in the film has own problem based on Cubian national problem like water supply and immigration to U.S.A. and so on but their face are so bright and so beautiful because they tries and tries for their dreams and their family even they're badly to make livings. Some people has dreams easily to make in developed country.

During the film, there's not so many conversation or explanation, it just shows the images of the truth of Cubian living and dreams and the Cubian sounds. I could feel their feeling sadness to passion for dreams and family. Quetly those Cubian appeal that if everybody just care for each other and love for each other, everybody can get happiness easily.

For more information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384566/

Sin Embargo
Nevertheless
Australia, 2003, 49 min.
Director and Script-writer: Judith Gray
Best documentary film, 2003, Festival de Cine de Grenada, Spain
Best integral Realisation Award, 2004, Honolulu Film festival
Award of Commendation, 2004, Society for Visual Anthropology, San Franzisco, US
Best International Feature,2004, Toronto Environmental Film Festival
Best Environmental Documentary, 2004, Vermont International Film Festival

After the revolution of 1959 and the U.S. embargo that followed, the people of Cuba were left to fend for themselves. Deprived of even the most basic goods, they scavenge the alleys and scrap heaps, giving new vitality to the discarded. Their recycled products are often remarkably ingenious and creative. For Anders the sculptor, Tomas the canary breeder, and the other subjects of Sin Embargo, even the greatest pressure – whether levied by government or circumstance – cannot crush the spirit nor quash the desire to forge a better life for themselves and their families. Shot entirely in Cuba, Sin Embargo is a look into the hearts and dreams of struggling peoples and a tribute to their optimistic and resourceful determination to survive.

Short documentaries about Cuba:

Nada Con Nadie
Nothing with No One
Brazil, 2003, 14 min.
Director: Marcos Pimentel

“Nada con Nadie” is documentary that observes the isolated mountain life of an elderly man and his son. The film is a reflection on time and silence.

Jose Manuel, la Mula y el Televisor
Jose Manuel, the Mule and the Television
Cuba, 2003, 14 min.
Director: Elsa Cornevin

After lightening struck the television antenna and interrupted the signal Jose Manuel decided to take matters into his own hands and continue with the program. He takes with him his mule and television set to different local people from the Sierra Maestro and interviews them about their life and the problems in the community. This film is a very comedic look at how one man uses his creativity and humour to produce social change in a small village in Cuba.

La Maldita circunstancia
The Damn Circumstances
Cuba, 2002, 11 min.
Director: Eduardo Eimil

Eduardo Eimil's brief farce "La Maldita Circunstancia" is a surreal glimpse at life in an urban block – specifically the basement of a building where some poor schlemiel wakes up to find his flat flooded knee-deep. Plumbers, plungers, and paramedics are no help, so he resorts to a low-tech solution.



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