Historic Tower Theatres to show Cuban Film Festival

posted by Al Alvarez on April 23, 2009 at 7:38 am

MIAMI, FL — In a sign of changing times, the Historic Tower Theatre in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana Cuban exile community will be hosting a festival of films from Cuba.

In the past, the exhibition of films from the island in Miami have been greeted with everything from accusations of the theatre management’s Communist sympathies to demonstrations to bomb threats and one incident of an exploding projector.

In recent years locals have been able to watch bootleg videos from the homeland and one local TV channel runs some titles without permission on Saturday nights, while making escrow payments for some planned future compensation to the Cuban state run film industry.

Read more about the Cuban Film Festival here in the Miami Herald.

Theaters in this post

Comments (6)

WayBackWhen2008
WayBackWhen2008 on April 23, 2009 at 6:58 pm

AA Are these films made in Cuba or just about Cuba? I remember watching Balsersos. Not sure if you saw it. Anything like that?

JSA
JSA on April 23, 2009 at 9:08 pm

AlAlvarez, thanks for posting this. Two of the films caught my attention: “Celia-The Queen” and “La Mala”.

JSA

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on April 23, 2009 at 10:20 pm

These are films from Cuba.

There have been fewer each year as Castro feels movies about life in Cuba are undermining in the revolution and has cut funding.

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on April 23, 2009 at 10:26 pm

JSA, “Celia” and “La Mala” are most likely U.S. driven. Both legendary ladies CELIA and LA LUPE are tabu on the island, especially as they were both black and anti-Castro.

JSA
JSA on April 24, 2009 at 10:24 am

Yes, it’s hard to imagine the Castro regime endosrsing a film about Celia Cruz.

Celia Cruz can be seen in the 70’s documentary/concert film “Salsa”. Her performance of “Bemba Colora” with the Fania All-Stars is simply amazing, the high point of the film, in my opinion.

My parents had a handful of La Lupe records. Sadly, most have been lost through the years.

JSA

WayBackWhen2008
WayBackWhen2008 on April 25, 2009 at 5:11 pm

One of the local filmakers for Celia- The Queen, Joe Cardona is or was an English teacher at MDCC. I was a student of his one semester at MDDC. He was very passionate about Cuban History, as I recall.

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