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The Cuban filmmaker and writer Ernesto Fundora will premiere his documentary feature Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara: We Are Connected in Miami, focusing on the figure of the artist and activist who has been imprisoned since the popular uprising of July 11, 2021.
The film, with a runtime of one and a half hours and in Full HD format, was shot in Cuba between 2016 and 2021 and was completed in Mexico City in November 2025. Fundora directs, writes, and produces the work, with cinematography by Carmelo Raneri, the director himself, and the audiovisual archive of the San Isidro Movement. The main cast includes Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Yanelys Núñez, Amaury Pacheco, and Iris Ruiz, featuring music by Omar Sosa, Armando Gola, César López, Berna Jam, La Crema, and the Raperos de San Isidro.
The documentary is produced with the collaboration of Video Vueltas Producciones, Nara Valdés Meeramoon, Carmelo Raneri, the Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami, Manny Ruiz, and Patriot Kid as associate producers.
In the texts accompanying the project, Fundora presents Otero Alcántara as “a genuine visual artist, a civic activist, a facilitator of change processes in his nation, an unyielding fighter against social injustices.” He describes him as a man who “faced a military dictatorship without weapons or gunpowder” and who “believes in beauty, in freedom, in love, and in the arts.”
The director also highlights his leadership in the San Isidro Movement, which he describes as “one of the most outstanding cultural movements of Cuba in the new millennium, a thorn in the side of the Castro dictatorship.”
The title of the documentary, We Are Connected, comes from a phrase that Otero Alcántara used to repeat at the end of his live broadcasts, which, according to Fundora, highlighted “the importance of cultivating the common good and believing in the religion of hugs.”
The film reviews his artistic and civic journey, his role in the founding of the San Isidro Movement, and the impact of his performative actions, which led him to be recognized by Time magazine as one of the 50 most influential personalities of his time and to receive awards from institutions such as Amnesty International, Rafto Human Right, Prince Claus, Václav Havel, Oxi Day for Courage, and Freedom House.
The premiere of Estamos conectados is scheduled for February, with screenings at the Cuban Diaspora Museum, Calle Dragones in Little Havana, the Miami Theatre, and Tower Road Ranch. According to a post by Fundora on Facebook, the performances will feature special guests from the cultural sphere and the Cuban exile community, including José Daniel Ferrer, Willy Chirino, Yordenis Ugás, Alejandro Ríos, and Kamankola.
The artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara —founder of the San Isidro Movement— remains in prison in Cuba, accused of crimes that international human rights organizations deem politically motivated. He was also included by Time magazine among the 50 most influential personalities of his time.
In recent months, the Cultural Rights Observatory reported that "17 artists remain imprisoned in the country’s penitentiary facilities, while another 10 are serving sentences without incarceration or under restrictive regimes," and warned that "27 Cuban creators have been punished by the State as a direct consequence of their artistic practices, civic engagement, or their refusal to renounce their own voice," as reported by the Cultural Rights Observatory.
The Observatory also stated that "creation is not a crime and culture cannot be imprisoned without consequences," referring to the group of artists who remain detained or under surveillance in Cuba.
The teaser for the documentary, published on Ernesto Fundora's YouTube channel, features snippets of interviews and archival material in which Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara reflects on his work and his role as a contemporary artist.
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