Post-Soviet Cuba has become a tourist trap with dollar-hungry Che Guevara lookalikes posing on streetcorners and sex-starved foreigners trolling for fun under the sun. Filmed as the U.S. embargo was about to be lifted, veteran director Enrique Colina’s latest documentary finds Old Glory resurfacing everywhere, from dilapidated balconies to booty shorts. The island puts on its Sunday best and readies itself to dance with the enemy for the first time in decades.
JUAN PABLO DARANAS MOLINA: LA PRÓXIMA GENERACIÓN (The Next Generation)
Juan Pablo, the twentysomething son of director Ernesto Daranas (Conducta) carves a niche of his own with Yunaisy. The tale of a young filmmaker whose future is in jeopardy if he refuses to submit to censorship is based on the director’s own experience. In Cuba, access to the Internet is curtailed. In Cuatro puertas (Four Doors) “if you try, sometimes you just might find, you get what you need.”
JUAN CARLOS CREMATA MALBERTI: CINE MÍNIMO (Minimum Cinema)
Necessity is the mother of invention and Cremata Malberti reaches new heights of hilarity with a pair of micro shorts made for ... cellphones! The much-revered ballet, Giselle, is recast as an interior monologue on the nature of diva-ism. Earning a living in exile can be fraught with peril. The director receives A Professional Training in superintendency with a guided tour of the generator room and its emergency machine. Heaven help the tenants of this building. In Cuban vernacular, untranslatable in English.
In person: Director Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti.