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Cuban reality once again takes center stage in the 43rd edition of the Miami Film Festival, which will take place from April 9 to 19 in Miami, featuring over 160 films from 45 countries and 40 world premieres.
The program "Spotlight on Cuba", curated by critic Alejandro Ríos, brings together this year about 14 productions including feature films, documentaries, and short films produced both inside and outside the Island, addressing themes such as daily life, recent history, emigration, exile, and cultural identity.
"I would say that this program… is a window to Cuban reality," Ríos stated to Telemundo 51, highlighting the importance of these stories in a context where many of them cannot be viewed freely on the Island.
The expert emphasized that several of the works included in the lineup are banned in Cuba, making Miami a key space for their dissemination: "In this city, marked by a large Cuban exile community, these productions find their natural audience, as well as other Latin American audiences, such as those from Venezuela and Nicaragua, who have also lived under authoritarian systems."
Among the most notable productions is "Calle Cuba" (Chile/Cuba/Mexico), which premiered worldwide, directed by Vanessa Batista. It documents residents of Old Havana who reenact their lives, exposing desperation and dangerous escapes.
It also has its world premiere "El Regresado" (Cuba), directed by Armando Capó, which follows a young painter in Gibara who faces repression and the purge of his mentor.
One of the most anticipated titles is "The Long Cuban Night" (Spain), a 100-minute documentary directed by Sergio Fernández Borrás about the San Isidro Movement and figures such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, Denis Solís, and Maykel Osorbo, which documents how art served as dissent before the protests of July 11, 2021.
This documentary is scheduled to be screened this Saturday, April 11, at 5:45 p.m. at Silverspot Cinema in Miami Beach.
The selection also includes "Coolie" (Cuba), a series set in Cuba in the 1860s about a Chinese orphan sent to the island; "Coquito con Mortadella," by director Ana Victoria Pérez, making its debut on the East Coast; and "To the West, In Zapata," by director David Bim, also premiering in Florida.
The program also includes a portrait of the painter Tomás Sánchez and a documentary narrated by Alina Fernández Revuelta, daughter of the late Fidel Castro, about the Cuban dictatorship.
The "Spotlight on Cuba" is sponsored by ArtesMiami, an organization with which the festival also launches the Miami Film Fund, which provides $15,000 in grants for filmmakers with ties to Miami and the Cuban-American community.
Alejandro Ríos, a central figure in the promotion of Cuban cinema in exile, has founded and directed the Cuban Film Series at Miami Dade College since 1993—an institution that has organized the festival since 2003—and organized the first Cuban Alternative Film Festival in 2003.
Beyond the cinematic aspect, "Spotlight on Cuba" is establishing itself edition after edition as a platform for denunciation, memory, and dialogue about the present and future of the island, where Cuban art finds the freedom that the regime denies it within its borders.
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