| Summary: | Memories of Cuba is an affectionate and thoughtful portrait of Cuba, some forty years after Castro took power. Academy Award-nominated David Bradbury (Frontline, Chile Hasta Cuando?) documents the erosion of the revolution in Cuba and sadly acknowledges that the socialist dreams of earlier decades have evaporated in the face of harsh circumstances. As the filmmaker travels across the island on trains, in broken-down cars, and sometimes hitchhiking, he encounters a fascinating cross-section of people who share their current reality, their hopes and disappointments. He discovers that the new generation looks to capitalism and tourism as the desperate solution to Cuba s economic woes. Among those Cubans Bradbury encounters are: an elderly couple living in a rent free apartment without plumbing who are grateful they eat every day; a broadcaster whose family has deserted Cuba to live in Miami; a documentary filmmaker who expresses frustration because his film on racism in Cuba was banned from the Havanna Film Festival; a dissident who calls for freedom of speech and free elections, and faces arrest. The story that unfolds is set against a backdrop of exuberant music and local color. While revolutionary ardor still burns in the breasts of many Cubans, and Che Guevara is still revered, forty years of economic hardship has taken its toll.
|
|---|