Playing in Washington DC on April 28 & 29. This just out in the Washinton Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/18/AR2006041801919.html?sub=new

Rap, Heard Round The World
Relishing Hip-Hop's International Flavor At Filmfest DC
By Desson Thomson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 19, 2006; Page C01

To the hip-hop cognoscenti, rap music's global appeal may not be groundbreaking news, but as a slate of films at this year's Filmfest DC makes clear, the art form resonates far beyond the Bronx, Philly or Compton. It belongs to anyone who wants in, be they B-girls, gays, Cubans, Tanzanians or, in the case of performance artist Danny Hoch, white guys having a little fun.

Hip-Hop 4 Reel -- the 10 feature films and five shorts screening as part of Washington's international film festival, which begins its 20th year tonight -- stands out as one of the fest's more distinctive sidebars.

"Inventos: Hip Hop Cubanos" is among the films about the low-tech ways hip-hop has been fused with a distinctive Cuban sound. (Clenched Fist Productions)

That's not so much for the quality of the films. Most seem more concerned with covering their subjects than making artistically memorable works, although Jauretsi Saizarbitoria and Emilia Menocal's "East of Havana" is an eloquent tone poem to three engaging young Cuban rappers. The value of these films, then, is their content -- what they show and tell us about rap and the fascinating people who follow it. Viewed as a whole, they form a scrapbook of impressions, sensations and revelations from around the globe. We see not only how hip-hop spread to distant corners of the Earth and almost every variety of humanity, but how it has been reprocessed and redefined by each new convert.

And each rapper has his or her own story to tell, political issues to hash out, musical traditions to draw from. They take rap and live it, breathe it, bump it and squeeze it till it's synced to the beat of their souls.

You haven't heard the full promise of rap, for instance, until you've experienced Moroccans doing it "Maghreb style" in Belgian filmmaker Bart van Dijck's documentary "Bellek," or watched a young Argentine woman as she freestyles in Virgilio Bravo's nine-minute work in progress "Estilo Hip-Hop: America Latina."

You can appreciate rap's deep significance to a Cuban musician named Soandry, who (in "East of Havana") declares, "Hip-hop means struggle. It means having a determined attitude towards life. Rebellion. The fight to make things better. The detoxification of the mind and body. To me, it means freedom." Coming from someone living under Fidel Castro's regime, these words are anything but casual.

Cuba is the foreign country most represented here. In "Havana," which was produced by actress Charlize Theron, "Inventos: Hip Hop Cubanos," by Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, and Lisandro Perez-Re's "La Fabri_K" (about the band of the same name), we see how young people have fused rap with the distinctive Cuban sound, that lazy conga happiness, and how they have made do with so little. Decent equipment, batteries and even electricity seem in short supply. Yet they find ways to express themselves, performing live or, when they can jury-rig a system, recording with no-tech aplomb.

They seem to have a different attitude toward poverty -- in stark contrast to the victimized fury that spits out from so many of their American counterparts. And their music seems to be more inclusive and user-friendly than the sturm-und-bling outbursts from Compton, Philly and the Bronx. When Alexey Rodriguez of the band Fabri_K takes a tour of America, his first trip beyond Cuba, you can feel his elation as he raps in Spanish on a New York subway train.

"I'm kickin' it here with a cellular phone," he improvises. "My homie right next to me is from Alamar/Yelandy's got my back and Magia does, too/I'm an MC straight out of Havana." He has transformed the burning embers of American rap into something else, something cheerier.

"East of Havana," which enjoyed an enthusiastic response at the recent South by Southwest Film Festival, stands out for its subjects, including Mikki Flow, who looks at his dusty old boombox, declares it a "museum artifact" but says, "It would break my heart to throw her away." That's right: His boombox is a woman. But the movie also provides perspective, showing how rap was affected by such political events as the collapse of Cuba's already flimsy economy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the exodus of 1994 in which 34,000 Cubans, including Soandry's brother Vladimir, fled the country.

Hip-Hop 4 Reel also includes home-grown films. Thomas Gibson's "Letter to the President," produced by Quincy Jones III, portrays rap as the only revolutionary means of expression for young black men and women who felt they were living in a parallel universe during Ronald Reagan's presidency. It exposes, too, the schism between those rappers and the older generation who had come through Jim Crow and the civil rights movement and found these rhyming epithets ungraceful.

Maori Karmael Holmes's short movie "Scene Not Heard" is a testament to the passion and brilliance of female rappers in Philadelphia. Among these musicians is Bahamadia, a poet and musician with a Buddhalike face, whose delivery is so rapid, smooth and fluid, it seems to come at you subliminally. And in "Beyond Beats and Rhymes," it's satisfying to see football-player-turned-filmmaker Byron Hurt take thoughtful exception to the rampant sexism in so many rap songs and music videos and in hip-hop culture in general. But rather than criticize blindly, he examines the roots behind this ignoble phenomenon -- the social tradition among many African American (and other) men of not showing weakness. Black men wear "psychic armor in order to walk out in the world every day," says a Spelman College professor and hip-hop historian. "But the other side of it is a running inside joke that everyone knows is not the case."

"Beyond Beats," like so many of these films, reminds you that hip hop-is always evolving and always surprising -- the true mark of any vibrant art form.

Hip-Hop 4 Reel, at Regal Cinemas through April 29. See http://www.filmfestdc.org/ for dates and show times.

 

DC FILM FEST REVIEW:

East of Havana

The tranquil Caribbean sun leaks into almost every shot of East of Havanaas if paradise were somehow immediately accessible to Soandry, Magyori, and Mikki Flow, three Cuban rappers from El Cartel, a hip-hop collective that survives outside the countrys official music system. But this is the Land of Castro, so although the MCs live within spitting distance of a pristine beach, their lives are defined by concrete housing projects and virtually no financial support. Co-produced by Charlize Theron and directed by second-generation Cuban-Americans Jauretsi Saizabitoria and Emilia Menocal, the doc is visually exquisite without relying too much on the kind of imagery that populates well-financed travelogues. Even better, its all about the rappers: Soandry is the serious-faced philosopher prince; Magyori comes off like a younger, harder Lauryn Hill; and Mikki is a skinny, cocky baritone whose charisma translates instantly. Though they rap in rugged Spanish and their grooves have the requisite rumba samples, the musics overall vibe is far from the hyperactivity of Puerto Ricos reggaeton. This stuff is distinctly North American, influenced via U.S. airwaves dominated by the titans of the 90s: Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, and so on. The film gets its excitement from other places, though. Family life is important to the three young stars, and their sense of national responsibility is unexpectedly strong. If its just a pose, it doesnt show: To them, the countrys micromanaged annual hip-hop festival is more than just a chance to go offits an opportunity to prove that the hip-hop thing is a revolution unto itself. JW
 

CONGRATS!!!!!!!


i read the reviews!!!!!! DISTRIBUTION IS GOING TO BE EASY if you weren't already able to secure it from South by Southwest. Hey do you know Peggy down at that festival? I wonder if shes still there. She was the program coordinator 2 years ago. but anyways, I AM EXCITED!!!!! i love to hear good things about independent filmmakers! LOVE IT!

Zu
 

Hello. Dont know Peggy. But Austin was such a cool town. SUPER MUSIC LOVERS. and thats sorta that heart of our film...these guys in Cuba are truly obssessed with music. so the vibe in the room that night in austin was in the right place.

We just played in Washington DC tonight. We just came out of a Q&A. It was a truly intelligent series of questions. People were really open digging into the politics of the music. It was really engaging. Charlize also came to join us tonight and was tight at the Q&A with her answers. We are truly lucky to have her as a mouthpiece for the movement. Hopefully, we'll begin reading the reviews in a few days. will keep y'all posted.
-J
 

Havana Rap
by Jeffrey Wells

To judge from three recent docs about bullet-dodging rappers living in volatile 'hoods, the most intense and socially relevant rap music these days is coming out of the Caribbean area.

George Gittoe's Rampage makes the case for the rap community in south Miami, Asger Leth's Ghosts of Cite Soleil injects rap into the hell of Haiti's poltical turmoil, and directors Jauretsi Saizarbitoria and Emilia Menocal show what the Cuban rap scene is about in East of Havana.

Each film has its own style and aesthetic, but Saizarbitoria's film is quite different than the other two, and not just because Charlize Theron produced it.

Caught earlier this week at South by Southwest by HE columnist Moise Chiullan, Havana is about the popularity of underground rap groups in Cuba and particularly three members of El Cartel, one of a small number of rapper groups in the suburbs of Havana.

There are two things that set El Cartel apart from standard-issue American rappers -- gender equality (a relatively rare thing in hip-hop circles) and sharply political lyrics. Instead of rapping about bitches, ho's and flashing dough around, Cartel's Mikki Flow, Soandry and Magyori (i.e., a female) tell stories about the daily struggle of living in post-Soviet Cuba . The story surrounds the cancellation -- censorship -- of Cuba's annual Rap Festival in 2004. Government representatives say it was due to hurricane damage, but the homie-in-the-street view is that The Man is keeping them down.

The film says something quite interesting, which is that as much as Cuban citizens may fear the power of the government, the government fears its people and their freedom of expression exponentially more. Political unrest isn't ebbing away. Poverty is worsening, economic resources are being more and more depleted, and Cuba's long-standing dictator Fidel Castro is getting older every day. Most Americans are unaware of the crushing effect of the Cuban embargo, and how 90 miles from the U.S. lies an island nation where there are computers but no internet and music but no iPods. But life moves along and things happen "por invento" -- i.e., by invention. Living life the Cuban way is a central concept to the poetry these rappers create: they use their passion and pain to distill literate, provocative lyrics that leave a profound impression on you. Their rap pounds to the rhythm of el corazon del barrio (the heart of the 'hood) and uses this evolving art form to its pinnacle. When word spread around South by Southwest crowds that Theron was Havana's producer, there was talk all over about her "doing it for credibility" or "trying to make it look like she cares." Not quite so.

The directors and producers of East of Havana have known Theron since she came to the U.S. from South Africa. They also acted as a surrogate family for her when she was "this little South African girl who didn't speak any English."

East of Havana almost didn't happen, as the filmmakers made it into Cuba just a few weeks before President Bush further clamped down on travel to Cuba. Too bad -- the El Cartel crew has expressed a strong desire to travel around and explore other cultures, given the opportunity.

Wim Wenders The Buena Vista Social Club showed us one side of Cuban music and culture, but East of Havana finally reveals the voice of contemporary Cuban youth and the rise of a very different new generation.

Look for more about this film in the coming months, as it was one of the most heavily-buzzed films of the festival.
 

SXSW NOTEBOOK:

A new social club

A few years ago, music fans around the world discovered the joys of traditional Cuban music with the Buena Vista Social Club.

With luck, theyll discover a new generation of Cuban rhythms through East of Havana, the beautifully shot and moving documentary about the islands oppressed hip-hop scene.

Though the documentary, which got its world premiere here Tuesday night, has gotten some press because one of its producers is Charlize Theron, the more impressive reason that it should get notice is that its an amazing piece of work from directors Jauretsi Saizabitoria and Emilia Menocal. And you dont have to be a hip-hop fan to appreciate the young performers struggle against a system thats so against them.

-- Cary Darling
 

FROM A BLOG CALLED BLANK SCREEN
http://blankscreenmedia.blogspot.com/2006/03/charlize-theron-produces-excellent.html


SXSW Filmweek has been relatively exciting this year. Besides all the hoopla of premieres, drinking, parties, drinking and celebrities, the films are the one thing that have lived up to the overblown SXSW reputation. Although most people know the festival because of the music (this year there are 1300 + bands, and that doesn't include the hundreds of free shows,) the overshadowed film schedule has been awesome. Really.

Two nights ago my brother convinced me to see East Of Havana - "a movie about cuban rappers, or something." It wasn't on my list, but what the hell, if it isn't good atleast I am spending time with my brother. We get there and of course have to wait in the no-badge line a.k.a. the poor man's line and then I look over to the front of the theatre and Charlize Theron is standing there (she is a blonde again.) I learn soon there after that she is the producer of the documentary. Its always so weird to see celebrities in little old Austin, my home for the past 5 years. I mean, we are just a small town with great parks, good beer and a few good festivals.

anyways.

The film was excellent. Firstly, a rap movement in East Cuba? Apparently so. And not only is it big but its actually really really good. East of Havana follows three young adults who are in a rap group called El Cartel. They are in their early twenties and live extremely impoverished lives. They all live with and help support their family members. The film shows two main tales, one of the lives of these kids; how they struggle to live in Cuba, what they think about the human condition and how they use rap and hip hop to express themselves and get passed the poverty and corruption. The second story this film tells is of the rap movement in East Cuba. Specifically in a town called Alamar where everyone listens to and/or performs rap. From the 7 year old rapping on the corner to the 70 year old barber who listens to rap at his house - it is the music that brings a strong sense of community to this poor ocean town.

As well as big chunks of dialogue and a woven story line there are many "montage-y" moments that happen to be just beautiful in this film. One particularly memorable sequence was when one of the rappers is descending the staircase of their apartment building. What would seem like a boring two minutes of walking down the stairs turns into a syncopated flow of color, architecture and ocean. By slowing down and speeding up the tempo of the sequence, the audience is almost drawn into seeing more than what is really there. Not to mention that this part of Cuba is absolutely beautiful. The colors in the film are almost unreal. Chipped away paint on the houses, the colors in the ocean and the richness and history in the skin of the Cuban people all create an aesthetically mesmeric film.

Yes, East of Havana is beautifully shot, impeccably editied, and takes risks that almost never fail, but it is the substance, the passion and the pain that comes out of these people's mouths that makes this movie one of my SXSW favorites. There are stories about the music and what an integral role it plays in the hope of the community. There are anecdotes of family members lost to the American dream. And there are fights about what it means to live as a Cuban and the struggle between national pride and national disappointment.

At the Q & A afterwards, Charlize stated that this was the World Premiere of the film, and they weren't sure if people would like it. She also said that they didn't know if and where it would play next.

I would be shocked if this film doesn't become an indie popular.


Editor: Martin De Leon II
Senior Contributor: Lauren Kinsler
 

FROM PSYCHOPEDIA.COM (check out the site for other cool things)....
http://www.psychopedia.com/dailynews/2006/03/my_town_holla_back_havana_youn_1.html

My Town: Holla Back, Havana! Young Filmmaker Explores Cubas Underground Hip-Hop Scene
by Karin Nelson

For as long as any New York nightlifer can remember, Jauretsi Saizarbotoria has been throwing the coolest parties in town, with the most flavorful music to dance to. But that would be expected of the Cuban-American Miami native, who grew up hanging around her familys restaurant, Centro Vasco, where just about every legendary Cuban exile performed. "Celia Cruz, Cachao, Albita they all played there. I was raised around music."

After the restaurant shut its Miami doors in 97, Jauretsi -- as shes simply known -- took a pilgrimage to Cuba; and what she found there was unlike anything shed ever heard: an underground hip-hop scene that had formed in the eastern outskirts of Havana, and was only recently legalized.

"The officials didnt understand it they thought it was protesting. If you were caught rapping, you were arrested."

With no American albums to listen to, the kids took soda cans and wire hangers and rigged illegal radio antennas. Moved by the music coming out of Miamis Hot 105 and 99 Jams, they began creating their own mix-tapes, which spread fast across the island.

"Theres a brilliant youth culture happening down there thats not covered in the news. Everybody talks about Cubas past no one talks about its future." So, with hopes of opening a dialogue on just that, Jauretsi headed back down to Cuba in summer 2004 with a couple of film cameras and the U.S. governments approval. East of Havana, her awe-inspiring documentary, produced by Charlize Theron and co-directed by Emilia Menocal, premieres March 14th at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, and will hit theatres this summer.

Meanwhile, heres a tour of Jauretsis favorite spots in Havana. In her own words:

The Malecon Wall
"The Malecon is one of the most revered places to sit in this world (and the most photographed in Cuba). Its where authors wrote their first novel, and where couples had their first kiss. In comparison to Miami, its the big ol Ocean Drive of Havana, minus the annoying traffic and neon lights. The breeze by the Malecon is one of those things you just have to experience for yourself. If you go to Cuba, grab a bottle of rum day or night, and go sit on the wall for a good talk."

Infanta
"Infanta is a very long picturesque street, off the beaten path away from tourists. At ..202, there is a gentleman outside who physically resembles a Cuban Hunter S. Thompson. There are usually 10-20 pieces of albums leaning on the floor beside him. Ask this man where the rest of his records are, and hell walk you into a secret vault of endless vinyl to buy at your disposal. A true diggers paradise. (Note: he has a sick Beny More collection.)"

The Alamar Amphitheater
"Located 30 minutes outside Havana, the neighborhood of Alamar is best known as the home of hip-hop in Cuba. Its reputation stems from hosting the first rap shows on the island. The amphitheater is a tough, cement-blocked, outdoor venue with Greek theater seating. All of Cuba's seminal bands had their start here, including the Grammy-winning Orishas. Mos Def played in this theater on his visit to Cuba and said he felt like he was in the last scene in Wild Style. Need I say more?"

The Bay of Cojimar
"This is a little, humble town nestled between Havana and Alamar. Cojimar has a special fishing tradition, and was the place where Ernest Hemingway fished endlessly. The Bay of Cojimar is what he referred to as 'the big blue river' in The Old Man and the Sea. East of Havana's main protagonist, Soandry, is from Cojimar."

Centro Vasco
"My trips to Cuba would not be complete without visiting my family's restaurant, which had its heyday in the 50s. The government owns it now. The walls practically speak to me and hug me when I walk in the room. My grandfathers Basque energy lingers strong. There are still two employees left who worked with my family pre-revolution, whom I love to catch up with. Centro Vasco is one of my main stops in Havana, and reconnects me to myself all over again. It's my soul's ground zero."

Habana Riviera Hotel
"The view of the hotel can be seen in the famous film, Soy Cuba, in the long crane shot. Its a classic hotel with lots of old-school casino vibes. Back in the pre-revolution era under Batista, Habana Riviera was run by Meyer Lansky and his gangster posse in their days of gambling and mob rule. It is simply one of the most beautiful buildings and elegant hotels. I hope to see it restored to its true glory one day, and not turn into some cheesy Vegas hotel."


Check It Out:

For more info on the film East of Havana, as well as its accompanied book, check out www.eastofhavana.com

South by Southwest runs March 10 19. For more information and event scheduling, www.sxsw.com

How does one get to Cuba? According to Jauretsi: "If you're from anywhere other than America, google Cubana Airlines. If youre from the US, prepare to jump through hoops with the US government; America is the only country that embargos travel to Cuba. So, youll need Mr. Bush's permission to visit. If you sneak through Mexico, prepare to get fined $10,000. But you can always apply to the State Department for humanitarian, educational, or journalistic reasons. Go to Marazul Airlines website (www.marazulcharters.com), and check out the rules and regulations." Flights are roughly $200-300.
 

MUSE MAGAZINE
cool blog, check it out:
http://musemagazine.blogspot.com/2006/04/films-its-like-bronx-circa-1979-only.html

FILMS: It's like the Bronx circa 1979--only in Cuba

Watching them perform, you get a sense that a movement is brewing. Theyre not just talking about hip-hop, says Jauretsi Saizarbitoria of her documentary, East of Havana. Its a poetic chronicle of the lives of three young rappers, Soandry, Magyori, and Mikki Flow leading an underground uprising against poverty and oppression through music in Alamar, Cuba. Its a spirit that Saizarbitoria recognizes well. Im a child of the revolution too, she explains.

The 34-year-old grew up in Miami where her family owned the legendary Cuban restaurant Centro Vasco. My grandparents opened it first in Cuba, which was like the French Riviera back in the 40s and 50s. Then Castro came and took the businesses away and my family left in 61. We became an exile story, she says.

Her parents opened the business in Little Havana, Miami in 1964, attracting a loyal cult-following that included locals and luminaries like Ronald Regan, Madonna and Gianni Versace who flocked to the nightspot for authentic Cuban food and live music. Everyone knew to check their politics at the door. My parents always defended the artists over politics, she says. But then in 1996, they booked, Rosita Fornes, a popular singer from Cuba and their neighbors firebombed the place out of protest turning the watering hole into a symbol of anti-Cuban terrorism in America and the subject of a lengthy New Yorker article. We lost a 50-year-old family business because of this cultural embargo and were blacklisted. It was pretty traumatic, she adds.

Fast forward to 2003, when Saizarbitoria, now a Nolita resident working as a DJ and magazine editor takes her first trip to Cuba on a story assignment and discovers an under-the-radar scene of local MCs in the countrys ghettos. They were grabbing onto the original seeds of hip-hop that developed in the Bronx in the 70s. The stakes are higher, so theres no talk about bling or gangsters. Its more about freedom and survival. Theyre the first generation in Cuba to be outspoken since it became a country where dissidents arent allowed, she explains.

Saizarbitoria went back in 2004 with Emilia Menocal, her co-director, who is also Cuban-American, and the support of her friend Charlize Theron who agreed to produce the film. They spent an entire summer there, shooting the three MCs as they prepared for the annual rap festival. I had to unlearn everything from my past all of the thinking that everything on that island is evil. I had more in common with the youth there, than my peers in Miami, who by the way, destroyed my familys restaurant, she explains.

Since then the movement has gained momentum Stateside, earning the attention of American hip-hop heads like Questlove and Mos Def. If nothing else, I hope this film will open dialogue about the cultural embargo of Cuba and give a face to a generation that has been invisible.

East of Havana premiered at the SXSW film festival and plays in the Washington D.C. Film Festival this weekend. Visit www.myspace/eastofhavana for future screening dates.
--Kenya Hunt

-Muse
info@musemag.net
 

IO FILM REVIEW - SCOTLAND

by Perky

This is a timely documentary for the Edinburgh Film Festival given the state of Fidel Castro's health and the uncertainty of Cuba's future. I had recently returned from a visit to Cuba, and so I was looking forward to seeing a side of Cuban culture not necessarily visible to the foreign visitor.

East of Havana follows the fate of a hip hop festival and focuses on the three members of hip hop posse El Cartel. The movie format is similar to The Buena Vista Social Club, with interviews with the main characters in their home environment. However instead of two Americans (Ry Cooder and son) visiting Cuba to unearth the gems from Havana music scene, this documentary is directed by two women whose parents are Cuban exiles.

Instead of the documentary ending with a successful concert, the hip hop festival ends up cancelled.

The documentary provides a good insight into how the younger generation, not old enough to remember the Revolution, view Cuba today. As far as Soandry, Mikki Flow and Magyori Martinez, the members of El Cartel, are concerned, they exist in abject poverty whilst living only 90 miles from the wealth and opportunity of the USA. The past is irrelevant to them - they live in the present and feel that Cuba needs to move with the times. They want the opportunity to make something of themselves, to travel (it is illegal for any Cuban to leave Cuba) and to express their opinions openly without fear of recrimination. Their rapping reflects this discontent and it becomes apparent that it is not looked upon too kindly by the powers that be.

Whilst not a fan of rap, I found something poetic in listening to the sounds of Spanish rapping whilst reading the English subtitles. In Spanish, their lyrics have rhythm and metre, in English the lyrics translate to living in harmony, equal opportunities for all and encouraging others to do the same. Hardly the stuff of gangstas, guns and ho's. In fact their rapping on 'ho's' (or mulattos in Cuban) is that such a trade need not exist and women should have equal rights.

There is a distinct parallel with El Cartel and N.W.A. Think of how revolutionary "F**k tha Police" by Niggers With Attitude was in the late 80s and you have an idea of the power of Cuban rap. Unfortunately for El Cartel their one annual opportunity to be heard on an international level is taken away from them when their hip hop festival is cancelled through a beauracratic decision.

Despite these set backs, all three members of El Cartel show a distinct optimism for the future and a desire to make their voices heard. The fact it's produced by Hollywood star Charlize Theron should see both this documentary and El Cartel gathering the attention they deserve...

With colourful footage on everyday Cuban life, articulate main characters and a worthwhile message, this is an interesting peek under the covers of one of the world's most intriguing nations.

POSTED ON:
http://www.iofilm.co.uk/fm/e/east_of_havana_2006.shtml
 

IO FILM REVIEW - SCOTLAND

This is a timely documentary for the Edinburgh Film Festival given the state of Fidel Castro's health and the uncertainty of Cuba's future. I had recently returned from a visit to Cuba, and so I was looking forward to seeing a side of Cuban culture not necessarily visible to the foreign visitor.

East of Havana follows the fate of a hip hop festival and focuses on the three members of hip hop posse El Cartel. The movie format is similar to The Buena Vista Social Club, with interviews with the main characters in their home environment. However instead of two Americans (Ry Cooder and son) visiting Cuba to unearth the gems from Havana music scene, this documentary is directed by two women whose parents are Cuban exiles.

Instead of the documentary ending with a successful concert, the hip hop festival ends up cancelled.

The documentary provides a good insight into how the younger generation, not old enough to remember the Revolution, view Cuba today. As far as Soandry, Mikki Flow and Magyori Martinez, the members of El Cartel, are concerned, they exist in abject poverty whilst living only 90 miles from the wealth and opportunity of the USA. The past is irrelevant to them - they live in the present and feel that Cuba needs to move with the times. They want the opportunity to make something of themselves, to travel (it is illegal for any Cuban to leave Cuba) and to express their opinions openly without fear of recrimination. Their rapping reflects this discontent and it becomes apparent that it is not looked upon too kindly by the powers that be.

Whilst not a fan of rap, I found something poetic in listening to the sounds of Spanish rapping whilst reading the English subtitles. In Spanish, their lyrics have rhythm and metre, in English the lyrics translate to living in harmony, equal opportunities for all and encouraging others to do the same. Hardly the stuff of gangstas, guns and ho's. In fact their rapping on 'ho's' (or mulattos in Cuban) is that such a trade need not exist and women should have equal rights.

There is a distinct parallel with El Cartel and N.W.A. Think of how revolutionary "F**k tha Police" by Niggers With Attitude was in the late 80s and you have an idea of the power of Cuban rap. Unfortunately for El Cartel their one annual opportunity to be heard on an international level is taken away from them when their hip hop festival is cancelled through a beauracratic decision.

Despite these set backs, all three members of El Cartel show a distinct optimism for the future and a desire to make their voices heard. The fact it's produced by Hollywood star Charlize Theron should see both this documentary and El Cartel gathering the attention they deserve...

With colourful footage on everyday Cuban life, articulate main characters and a worthwhile message, this is an interesting peek under the covers of one of the world's most intriguing nations.

POSTED ON:
http://www.iofilm.co.uk/fm/e/east_of_havana_2006.shtml
 

Charlize angles for new film role

JAMES MOTTRAM

A SLEEPY-looking Charlize Theron arrives half an hour late for our interview, full of apologies for getting "lost" in Edinburgh's Sheraton hotel. Dressed in black trousers and a grey, thick-collared jumper, she has a maroon woollen cap pulled over her blonde hair, presumably in an attempt to preserve some anonymity. It's a decidedly unglamorous ensemble - though the 31-year-old has never had a problem with playing down her looks, if her near-unrecognisable Oscar-winning turn as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster was anything to go by.

Ironically, as the major A-list star at this year's Film Festival, Theron isn't even on the screen. Arriving as a producer with the commendable Cuban hip-hop documentary East of Havana, you might say she is in the process of reinvention. Despite winning the Oscar for Monster in 2004 and receiving a second nomination for sex discrimination drama North Country this year, Theron hasn't acted in two years and doesn't feel the need to capitalise on the heat currently surrounding her.


"I think that's a huge mistake that actors make," she says. "I don't have to go and work just for the sake of working. So I can really hold out for something that I really want to do - and not because I need to pay the bills."

While she still loves acting, Theron is looking to broaden her range by producing films. "I like every aspect of it," she says. "I do whatever I possibly can do to actually physically get a project off the ground."

Although her company, Denver and Delilah Films, named after her two cocker spaniels, has been in business for more than six years, East of Havana is only the second production to make it to the screens after Monster. Yet it caps a considerable change of direction for Theron.

At its inception, the South African-born star was just another Hollywood pretty face. Two Woody Allen films (Celebrity and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion) aside, the bulk of her career was made up of playing arm candy in movies like The Devil's Advocate and The Astronaut's Wife.

While it was Monster that dramatically changed audience perceptions about her acting abilities, Theron claims the frustration she felt about the limitations of her career prior to that was not why she set up her own production outfit. "Honestly, that was never the reason I started the company - that I had this fear that I was not going to get the projects that I wanted," she says.

"I really just started enjoying the process of working with writers and developing material. There's a great joy in challenging yourself to do something that you don't know that well, because when you do get it right, it's quite a tremendous feeling."

In the case of East of Havana, it stemmed from a long-standing friendship with the film's co-director Jauretsi Saizabitoria, whom she met when she was 17 and living in Miami, shortly after having moved to the US from South Africa. Fascinated by the fact her friend was Cuban-American, Theron says they "always talked about the idea of making a documentary", but the idea changed after a trip to Cuba in 2001 to meet with Saizabitoria's family. There, they met up with three Havana-based rappers - Soandry, Magyori and Mikki Flow, aka the El Cartel posse - who were the stars of a burgeoning underground hip-hop movement. "The documentary took on a life of its own when we met these three kids. They were so incredible that we realised that just telling their story was enough."

El Cartel recall the anger of Public Enemy as they rap about Communist life under Castro. Theron sees them as far removed from the lightweight lyrics of many current US rappers. "That's why I think hip-hop has changed so much in America," she says.

"We are dealing with way too much bling bling, gun violence and slap-your-bitch-up stuff - though that's very much society right now in America. In Cuba, if they wanted to just imitate, they could rap about that stuff. But what they're doing is creating something very truthful to their social condition right now."

As the film unfolds, it concentrates on Soandry's relationship with his brother, who had fled to Miami in 1994 and been separated from his family ever since. Being estranged from your country was a topic Theron was able to relate to. Born to a German mother and French father, she was raised on a farm near Johannesburg, where she lived until she won a local modelling contest when she was 16. It was then that she left her homeland, heading to New York after a brief sojourn in Europe, where she trained as a dancer at the Joffrey Ballet Company. While a knee injury ended her dream, Theron remained in the US after her mother paid for her to go to Los Angeles to become an actor.

Nevertheless, Theron regularly returns to the land she grew up in. "Just because I live in America and I feel very much at home in America, I am a South African and that will never change for me. It is in the detail of putting your feet on that land and just having a connection with it. It's in my blood and it'll never go away. I lived there until I was 16 - half of my life there, half of my life abroad. It is in the details - the air, and the way things smell and the way people talk. It's a connection that you can't really articulate, but it's just there."

Theron now lives in LA with her fiancé, Irish actor Stuart Townsend, whom she met on the set of the 2002 thriller Trapped. As non-committal about any future marriage plans as she is to acting right now, for the moment Theron is looking to launch a new film with director Alan Parker, "an eccentric off-the-tracks family drama-comedy" as she puts it.

Called The Ice at the Bottom of the World, it's a story of what happens when a navy officer who has spent his life at sea separated from his family finally retires. "Every year there has been something holding it back," she says. "But I think we can go in spring next year."

Spoken like a true producer.

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POSTED ON: http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1224562006
 

re:vision Highlights New York's Most Notable Downtown Artists?Thursday June 22, 11:00 am ET

-- First Edition Now Available --

NEW YORK, June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- re:vision, a collection of photographs highlighting the independent and pop culture art scene in New York, debuts this month. Signed and numbered first edition copies of re:vision feature sixteen of New York's most dynamic downtown artists, including: Alife co-founder Tony Arcabascio, Broken Flowers star Alexis Dziena, street artist Swoon, and East of Havana filmmaker and editor Jauretsi Saizarbitoria.

"Independent art is a huge part of what makes New York such an important and exciting place," said Chris Pieretti, photographer and editor of re:vision. "Getting this inside look at an artist in the process of creating is not only inspiring, it's important. Because of the independent nature of the project, I was able to gain access to people who wouldn't normally share something as intimate as their creative process. With re:vision you see these artists shape their craft, hone their skill and develop their deep-seated artistic vision."
The re:vision project documents the downtown New York art scene over the course of one year as Pieretti photographed the process of art as it moved from inspiration to reality. Each of the sixteen subjects contained in re:vision show off their skills and working environment for a truly inspiring and original look into the creative process.

The re:vision project was partially underwritten by Le TIGRE, a sportswear company headquartered in NYC. "We've always been supporters of the arts and found this project inspiring for young artists," said Ali Paul, VP of communications for Le TIGRE.

There will be a release party on July 27th, 2006. Hard-copy invitation to follow.
Pricing and Availability

re:vision is a 176-page, color, hard-copy book that is available at http://www.revisionnewyork.com and at selected boutiques worldwide, including Opening Ceremony, Zakka, St. Mark's Bookshop, Memes and The Reed Space. Cost is $20.

About Chris Pieretti
Chris Pieretti is a photographer focusing on the independent art scene in New York City. He is dedicated to capturing the essence of independent art that is alive in New York City today. His work has appeared in Vice, Frank 151, Jane and Women's Wear Daily. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Vermont. He is twenty-nine years old and lives in the East Village.

FOUND ON: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060622/neth004.html?.v=59
 

Coming Attraction: East of Havana

OCTOBER 31, 2006

It’s Halloween. Who’s the biggest monster? Jason? Freddy? Leatherface? How about Fidel Castro? You can see his handiwork in East of Havana, a new documentary co-produced by Charlize Theron, believe it or not. It is scheduled to open in January (a full review will be posted then), but I was able to attend a screening last night. As currently edited, it is a film worth seeing, not likely to endear Theron to Castro’s Amen corner in Hollywood.

East of Havana follows three young Cuban Hip-Hop artists who have formed their own musicians union, El Cartel, outside of the state music system. They are looking forward to Cuba’s international Hip-Hop festival, a rare opportunity for their music to come out from underground. It seems Hip-Hop in Cuba is in an analogous position to that of jazz in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. While usually suffering from malignant neglect to outright hostility, the music’s “proletarian” roots allows for occasional sanction for state sponsored international events (which of course, serve a propaganda purpose).

While the press materials carefully try to position the film between “the twin carcasses of Castroite Communism and the Bush-backed exiles,” in the words of in the words of The Independent (UK), it is hard to argue with the most ardent critic of Castro after seeing the living conditions documented in the film. Nobody has anything to say about all that great free healthcare Castro provides, but one of the young rapper’s mother tellingly jokes about cooking entire meals from three garlic cloves. Ah yes, the fruits of revolution.

Watching East clearly illustrates the legacy of Castro. He has turned the island into a slum. In his urban blight, Hip-Hop, the contemporary music of urban angst naturally thrives. Cuban youths are seen wearing Tupac t-shirts in much the same way their western counterparts wear the image of Che. However, the Tupac enthusiasm is more understandable and appropriate to the circumstances faced by El Cartel.

Several times in the film, the artists specifically compare Hip-Hop to freedom. One, Soandry, bemoans the fact that one has to leave the country to think freely, as his older brother did. Give the young artists their due. Although produced under difficult conditions, their music is actually quite good. It certainly has a vitality many find lacking in the current American Hip-Hop scene. There are in fact, several tracks from the soundtrack that would make great club mixes.

East of Havana is not a perfect film. Even at 82 minutes, there are pacing problems. Seeing Janet Reno acknowledged for “special thanks” in the credits is bound to raise some eye-brows for some audiences, as well. However, the images of Cuban reality captured by the filmmakers are indisputable. Castro’s victory was humanity’s loss. Soandry and his Hip-Hop compatriots offer hope for a young generation of free-thinking Cubans questioning Castro’s police state.

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POSTED ON:
http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2006/10/coming-attraction-east-of-havana.html
 

The Independent (UK)

The future of Cuba? Ask its rappers.

By Johann Harri

Beyond the twin carcasses of Castroite Communism and the Bush-backed exiles, a generation of young Cubans is trying to be heard

    
In the middle of a stormy Caribbean summer, a few tears in the intestine of an old man have made two twinned cities â Havana and Miami â awkwardly, anxiously combust. The physical decline of Fidel Castro has been dreaded or dreamed of for nearly fifty years, and now it is here and Fidel is failing and faltering, it has a strange air of unreality.

The kinetic energy that crackles between these opposing poles of the Cuban imagination â the two-thirds of the population imprisoned on the island, and the exiled lump ninety miles away in Miami dreaming lunatic dreams of Batista and of vengeance â is now more intense than ever. They are gazing at each other across the Caribbean Sea asking: what Cuba comes next?

Power appears to have been ceded to Fidelâs brother Raul, in an ironic moment of communist monarchy. But the new King has only offered a single robotic statement to state television. Fidel has been pictured BlackBerrying on his hospital bed and bragging he will live as long as Hemmingwayâs Old Man and the Sea. And offshore, Condoleeza Rice has this week renewed an offer to lift the suffocating American embargo in exchange for open elections.

Since Fidel was hospitalised, most comment has focused on these top-level state shenanigans. But buried beneath this, there is the ordinary voice of the Cuban people, ignored, as ever. To the outside world, Cuba has always been as much a symbol as a country â either a plucky icon of resistance to the American Empire or the last frozen gulag of Communism left behind by the Cold War, depending on your political perspective.

One side sees the terrific schools and hospitals, the long life expectancy that is far better than in comparable countries with US-backed governments, and the cruel American embargo blocking all trade with the island. The other side sees the political prisoners, the ban on the internet, the firing squads, the driving-out of millions of innocent people. Pick a vision and project whatever you like onto the Cuban people. Itâs not like they can speak for themselves without facing jail.

But now â as Castroism sags into incontinence â it is time to move beyond these sterile polarisations and hear the multiple voices of Cubans, both at home and in Florida. If you listen carefully, there are whispers of a future Cuba, beyond the rotting carcass of Castroite communism and the right-wing mania of the Bush-backed exiles. The fascinating new documentary âEast of Havanaâ offers us an insight into this world through the most unexpected of mediums â rap.

In the cracked, fading barrios that circle the Cuban capital, the children of the Special Period have been shrugging off state censorship and expressing their frustration through rap, secretly recorded and sold in bootleg. They have lived their entire adult life in this, the period that began with the fall of the Soviet Union, when the static communist-Cuban economy stopped being lubricated with money stolen from the Russian people. They have never known anything but rolling black-outs and families flinging themselves into the sea on rafts to flee.

While they fear the designs of the Bush administration, they also rap to Fidel, âFor you to live is to die as a historical figure/ To drag an entire country to the grave with you.â They are the Buena Vista Social Club in a seething slum, and these eloquent, dignified young Cubans refuse to shut up. They echo the words of Raúl Rivero Castañeda, the Cuban democrat who says, âNo one, no law will make me believe that I have become a gangster or a delinquent just because I report the arrest of a dissident, or list the prices of staple foods in Cuba, or write that I find it appalling that more than 20,000 Cubans every year go into exile in the United States and hundreds of others try to go anywhere they can.â For uttering these criminal words, he is serving twenty years in prison.

Rap groups like âEl Cartelâ have become to Castroism what the Plastic People of the Universe were to Czech communism â a musical outlet for political rage. They long for something like European social democracy or the democratic Chavista revolution in Venezuela.

Intriguingly, there is a parallel movement of liberal Cuban exiles who say that âboth sides of the Florida Straits are fighting against our own dogmas.â âEast of Havanaâ was made by the team of siblings called Juan Carlos Saizarbitoria, Jauretsi Saizabitoria and Emilia Menocal, and I met up with them last week. They are thirtysomething Cuban-Americans, and their life-story is a parable about the mirror-image intolerance of many of the Cuban exiles seething in Miami. The first generation of Cuban exiles fled in 1959 when the Cuban revolution toppled the dictator Fulgencio Batista, who had all the thuggishness and none of the decent social programmes of the Castro regime. The hardcore of Batista-followers dreamed of a restoration, and they comprise the Loony Tunes hardcore of the exile movement today. But Juan, Jauretsi and Menocalâs grandparents made up a very different wave of exiles that followed in the 1960s.

Their grandfather owned a newspaper and a famous restaurant that supported the revolution and lauded Castro, believing his promises â from his guerrilla hideout in the Sierra Maestra â that he would hold democratic elections. But once the dictatorship began, the newspaper was swiftly shut down by Castroâs goons, and the family was forced to flee. They opened an exact copy of their Sentro Vasco restaurant in Miami and tried to keep alive the dream of a liberal democratic Cuba.

But they found fanatical opposition from some of the exile community because they tried to maintain a dialogue with Cuba. In 1996, they even booked one of the few native Cuban performers allowed to travel, Rosita Fornes, to perform in a cabaret. This was a massive taboo, seen as funnelling money into a tyranny. The restaurant was firebombed by enraged exiles. âWe had our restaurant taken from us twice,â explains Juan. âOnce by Castro and the hard left, and then by the exiles and the hard right.â

Menocal says softly, âOur generation of exiles needs to start a new conversation with native Cubans of our own age.â In their travels through Cuba to make the film, they found a surprising shared vision of a democratic Cuba beyond the poisoned poles of Castro or Bush â but how can it be realised? In their travels through Cuba to make the film, they found a surprising shared vision of a democratic Cuba beyond the poisoned poles of Castro or Bush. But this tentative connection needs to be handled gently. The hardcore exiles have visions of seizing the island when Fidel dies. âThat would be a really bad idea,â Menocal says. âThe exiles will arrive saying, âIâve been fighting for your liberation for fifty yearsâ, and the people of Cuba are going to say â who the hell are you? Weâve been hungry and youâve been fighting for our liberation from an air-conditioned room in Florida.â

The route to a genuinely democratic Cuba is not through Condyâs current offer of trading elections for the end of the embargo either, a bid the White House makes in the certain knowledge it will not be taken up.

No: it is to lift the embargo without conditions today, and make the real Fidel and Raul stand up. âThe embargo has given Fidel a cloak he can wrap around himself. He can blame every abuse and every problem on it,â Menocal says. Once it is gone, the hideous problems caused by suppressing all economic activity and all democratic sentiments will be exposed without excuses.

Shorn of the embargo-excuse, Raul would have to either open up a democratic space, fall back on the âcannonsâ he threatened to use against pro-democracy protestors in 1994, or fall altogether. Itâs unlikely the regime will pass peacefully into the night: Raul was the most enthusiastic chief of the Cuban firing squads in the early years of the revolution â he and Che âcompeted in killings and viciousnessâ, according to one left-wing guerrilla comrade â and the most vehement Stalinist in the years of Soviet slush-funds.

Raul will probably try to pursue the Chinese route of loosening control of the economy while keeping fierce control of politics. But as the rap groups and liberal exiles show, Cubans are hungry to return to the democratic values articulated on the Sierra Maestra all those years ago, before Fidel became intoxicated by communism and raw power. They will not settle for becoming a sixth-rate Shanghai.

But for now, it seems that even as Fidel fades, the American embargo and Cuban communism are determined to continue marching hand-in-hand into history, as slouching, sinister Siamese twins.


POSTSCRIPT: You can send personal comments on this article to johann (at) johannhari.com or, if you would like them to be considered for publication in the Independent, write to letters@independent.co.uk    

POSTED ON: http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=966

 

BBC

Theron denies pro-US bias in film

East of Havana received its UK premiere in Edinburgh on Friday

Actress Charlize Theron has denied a documentary made by her production company shows a pro-American bias in the problems facing Cuba. East of Havana tells of three young rappers whose love of hip-hop faces censorship by the Communist government.

It has faced criticism for taking a rose-tinted view of the Caribbean island and for ignoring the effects of a trade embargo by the US.

But Theron insisted it was "ridiculous" to claim it was a political statement.

"I think in the film we really address the America-Cuba relationship.

"If there is any political comment it was through [the characters'] voices - it's their story not our story," the South African-born Oscar-winner said.

"In no way are we saying America isn't at fault here."

She added: "Do you actually think in America this is seen as a pro-American film?

"If we really made a film about the embargo it wouldn't make sense. It's ridiculous."

The movie was written and directed by Jauretsi Saizarbitoria and Emilia Menocal, with whom Theron attended its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

POSTED ON:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5266994.stm
 

Charlize Theron is Serious About Censorship

Posted Aug 25th 2006 4:37PM

by Kim Voynar

Charlize Theron has taken some chances as an actress, and now she's moved into the heady world of producing documentaries. In a fascinating interview with The Guardian, Theron discusses her role producing doc East of Havana, which recently premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The film focuses on the issue of censorship in Cuba, told through the story of three young hip-hop artists struggling to create in a climate of poverty, censorship and restricted access to travel. Theron says in the piece, "the foundation of Cuba is censorship. You have to ask: would I take the free healthcare and education and accept being a prisoner in my soul?"

The interview covers the ground of Theron's growing up in South Africa, where, much like the artists in East of Havana, she faced issues of censorship that made her appreciate that much more the freedom she has in America. She says of screening the film in America, "Everybody grasps on to Cuba, but as soon as the conversation comes round to America and you see how this material reflects on the US, it's quite devastating. People are very scared to say anything that might come across as unpatriotic." It's a pretty interesting look at an actress who is clearly way more than just another pretty face.

POSTED ON: http://www.cinematical.com/2006/08/25/charlize-theron-is-serious-about-censorship/
 

Ten years of Mirrorball: from pop to politics

By Barry Didcock
06 August 2006

IN the month that we mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of MTV its worth remembering that the Mirrorball strand of the Edinburgh International Film Festival is also approaching an important, and not unrelated, milestone.

Founded in 1996 and designed to showcase the most radical and innovative end of the music-video industry MTV helped create, Mirrorball celebrates its 10th anniversary by consolidating a trend which has been apparent over the past couple of festivals: the drift away from the Euro and Japan-centric work of old towards a more catholic worldview with documentary at its heart.

The 2006 Mirrorball line-up features the usual surfeit of Japanese animation, leftfield music promos and hymns to seminal US rock acts (this year its The Pixies). But the real gems are The Refugee All Stars and East Of Havana, two very different documentaries which tap into the same cultural current: the power of music to speak to shared historical and political experiences and build from them something that can actually effect change.

The Refugee All Stars are a band formed in Sembakounya refugee camp in Guinea in the late 1990s. Displaced by the brutal, decade-long civil war in the neighbouring west African country of Sierra Leone, they are led by the inspirational Reuben Koroma, who once played with Freetown group The Emperors.

Koromas is no ordinary West African dance band, however. The Refugee All Stars use hubcabs for cymbals and have members whose bodies bear the terrible reminders of war. Harmonica-player Mohamed only lost his hand, cut away by a machete, but he was also forced to watch as his mother and father were murdered and then made to kill his own child. You can see his thoughts returning to that horror as he talks about it. His eyes go glassy.

The bands youngest member, teenage rapper Alhadji J Kamara, was luckier than Mohamed. He escaped with his limbs intact but its been so long since he saw his mother that he says he wouldnt recognise her now. His trauma is less visible, but equally palpable.

Zach Niles and Banker Whites film follows the All Stars over the course of two years as they tour Guinea in a van and then return to Freetown to cut a record, sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Amazingly, its the first time many of these veteran musicians have set foot inside a studio. The sound they make is astonishing: African soul music into which this extended, rootless family has poured the boundless energy of their troubled continent. The film itself is no less moving.

Like The Refugee All Stars, East Of Havana is about yearning and loss, though its not the song of the African exile we hear but the poetry of a trio of Cubans who want the freedom implicit in the musical form they venerate: hip hop. Made by Jauretsi Saizabitoria and Emilia Menocal, and co-produced by Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron, its essentially a sort of anti-Buena Vista Social Club. There is a Ferrer in the story but hes called Soandres not Ibrahim and he prefers over-sized T-shirts and baggy jeans to white caps and natty spats.

Soandress partners at the forefront of Cuban hip hop are Michel Hermida (Mikki Flow) and Magyori Martinez Veitia (Magyori). Single artists in their own right, they have come together to form El Cartel and the film follows them from their homes in Alamar, east of Havana and Cubas hip hop capital, to the rough-and-ready recording studios where they crowd round home-made mikes to rap about Castro and the bollocks hes made of running their country.

As well as freedom from censorship, the rappers want respect, visibility and, to a certain extent, the trappings of wealth which America seems to offer. In one telling scene, Mikki Flow shows off his most treasured possession: an iPod. What I have in my hands is a jewel, he says, handling the slim white thing as if it were the phial in which his own life force were stored which in a way, it is.

Refreshingly, talk of Uzis and bitches is absent; instead the rappers litter the lyrical flow with references to ETA, King Midas and Castros determination to put his own historical legacy above everything else .

Magyori sells wood in the street to make a living and scribbles her lyrics in a tatty old exercise book. She is vocal on crime and womens rights, as well she might be: her mother was a prostitute and most of her family have been in prison. Soandres, meanwhile, hasnt seen his brother since 1994 when he left on a raft for a new life in the US. The family gets a postcard on Mothers Day.

We are street people without money and without many opportunities, says Mikki Flow. Its important for you to hear me.

T here are lessons in these two films political as well as musical that the download generation would do well to heed if they can tear themselves from MTV .


EDINBURGH SCREENINGS:
The Refugee All Stars, Cineworld, August 24 (7.30pm) and 26 (3pm); East Of Havana, Cineworld, August 18 (7pm) and 21 (5.15pm)

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FOUND ON SUNDAY HERALD, SCOTLAND NEWSPAPER
http://www.sundayherald.com/57056
 

VARIETY

Posted: Fri., Jul. 21, 2006, 2:11pm PT
East of Havana (Documentary)

A Denver and Delilah Films Production and Sugar Barons presentation. Produced by Charlize Theron, Clark Peterson, Meagan Riley-Grant, Juan Carlos Saizarbitoria. Directed, written by Jauretsi Saizarbitoria, Emilia Menocal.

With: Soandres "Soandry" Del Rio Ferrer, Magyori Martinez Veitia, Michel "Mikki Flow" Hermida, Vladimir Abad, Daisy M. Abad, Norma Despaigne, Adrian "El Loco" Espronceda Serpa, Pablo Herrera, Ariel Fernandez Diaz, Carlos "Yimi Konclaze" Rodriquez, Reynor Hernandez Fernandez, Karel Betancocet Benitez, Randy Acosta, Humberto "Papa Humbertico" Cabrera, Denis "Deno" Penalver Medina, Carlos A. Cantero, Alexy "Pelon" Cantero, Axel Tosca.

(Spanish, English dialogue)

By ROBERT KOEHLER

The temptations of allowing a promotional video to seep inside a genuine non-fiction study nearly overtake "East of Havana" and its look at a bubbling hip-hop culture in Cuba. Like several previous docs on Cuban musicians, dancers and other artists in less-than-ideal conditions, Jauretsi Saizarbitoria's and Emilia Menocal's film serves as a metaphor about artistic freedom and wiliness. But it also suggests a distinctly stylish Cubano rap. Pic will energetically represent on the world fest circuit, and should lay down some solid theatrical and vid tracks.

Instead of a broader overview of the nature of Cuban hip-hop, "Havana" takes the particular examples of three artists, members of a loose but loyal group of performers called "El Cartel" based in the working-class burg of Alamar. Given their obvious talent, Soandry (nickname for Soandres Del Rio Ferrer), Mikki Flow (or Michel Hermida) and Magyori Martinez Veitia could all be major stars if Cuba had a healthy, open music industry, and they all come across as more reflective and thoughtful than the vast majority of North American rap stars.

Pic is bookended by an account of the efforts to stage the 2004 edition of the island's only hip-hop festival, launched in 1998. Although it first appears that the approaching Hurricane Charley is the fest's main threat, it later emerges that Cuban authorities have used the cleanup in Charley's aftermath as an excuse to cancel the annual affair. Mikki, a key organizing force and the film's most incisive spokesperson, says the hip-hop underground will arrange a fest in some other form.

The pic never tracks what Mikki and "El Cartel" come up with. Rather, it is emotionally attached to the story of Soandry and his exiled brother Vladimir Abad, who now lives Stateside and hasn't seen his parents in years. As with most doc accounts of life in Cuba, the personal costs of familial separation are never far from any conversation.

The doc is far weaker in laying out the music's history, but Mikki does explain that the roots of Cuban rap stem from the so-called "special period" of the 1990s, when Cuba suffered from a cutoff of aid from the former USSR and Cubans had to learn new modes of survival. "It was," says Mikki, "the catalyst for our movement," and it does seem to more relevantly express realities and desires than the older forms of Cuban salsa and jazz.

Pic looks almost too cool and dazzling for its own good -- Christophe Lanzenberg's video cinematography pops with bright, postcard colors -- contributing to an impression that it's functioning as a publicity vehicle for the artists as much or more so than as a true doc. The music hits the ears like a sonic splash, and the "El Cartel" style happily disturbs standard hip-hop patterns with salsa inflections and sophisticated rhythms.

Camera (color, DV), Christophe Lanzenberg; editor, Fernando Villena; music, Paul Heck, Federico Fong; music supervisor, Heck; sound, Ricardo "Tato" Peres; supervising sound editor, Chato Hill; associate producers, Menocal, Saizarbitoria. Reviewed at Los Angeles Film Festival (competing), June 29, 2006. (Also in South by Southwest, Edinburgh film festivals.) Running time: 82 MIN.

FOUND ON: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117931149?categoryid=31&cs=1
 

BLOG: JB SPINS

Coming Attraction: East of Havana
Tuesday, October 31, 2006


It’s Halloween. Who’s the biggest monster? Jason? Freddy? Leatherface? How about Fidel Castro? You can see his handiwork in East of Havana, a new documentary co-produced by Charlize Theron, believe it or not. It is scheduled to open in January (a full review will be posted then), but I was able to attend a screening last night. As currently edited, it is a film worth seeing, not likely to endear Theron to Castro’s Amen corner in Hollywood.

East of Havana follows three young Cuban Hip-Hop artists who have formed their own musicians union, El Cartel, outside of the state music system. They are looking forward to Cuba’s international Hip-Hop festival, a rare opportunity for their music to come out from underground. It seems Hip-Hop in Cuba is in an analogous position to that of jazz in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. While usually suffering from malignant neglect to outright hostility, the music’s “proletarian” roots allows for occasional sanction for state sponsored international events (which of course, serve a propaganda purpose).

While the press materials carefully try to position the film between “the twin carcasses of Castroite Communism and the Bush-backed exiles,” in the words of in the words of The Independent (UK), it is hard to argue with the most ardent critic of Castro after seeing the living conditions documented in the film. Nobody has anything to say about all that great free healthcare Castro provides, but one of the young rapper’s mother tellingly jokes about cooking entire meals from three garlic cloves. Ah yes, the fruits of revolution.

Watching East clearly illustrates the legacy of Castro. He has turned the island into a slum. In his urban blight, Hip-Hop, the contemporary music of urban angst naturally thrives. Cuban youths are seen wearing Tupac t-shirts in much the same way their western counterparts wear the image of Che. However, the Tupac enthusiasm is more understandable and appropriate to the circumstances faced by El Cartel.

Several times in the film, the artists specifically compare Hip-Hop to freedom. One, Soandry, bemoans the fact that one has to leave the country to think freely, as his older brother did. Give the young artists their due. Although produced under difficult conditions, their music is actually quite good. It certainly has a vitality many find lacking in the current American Hip-Hop scene. There are in fact, several tracks from the soundtrack that would make great club mixes.

East of Havana is not a perfect film. Even at 82 minutes, there are pacing problems. Seeing Janet Reno acknowledged for “special thanks” in the credits is bound to raise some eye-brows for some audiences, as well. However, the images of Cuban reality captured by the filmmakers are indisputable. Castro’s victory was humanity’s loss. Soandry and his Hip-Hop compatriots offer hope for a young generation of free-thinking Cubans questioning Castro’s police state.

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BLOG POSTED ON: http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2006/10/coming-attraction-east-of-havana.html

Location:New York, New York, United States

J.B. works in the book publishing industry, and also teaches jazz survey courses at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He has written jazz articles for publications which would be appalled by his political affiliation.

Send e-mail to jb.feedback@yahoo.com.
 

I LOVED IT!
I was fortunate enough to watch the 8:15 show time of  East of Havana at the IFC Theatre in NYC, and I was so proud of what you have managed to put together and what you have done to bring this film to light, what I forgot to ask during the Q and A part was why? What was your motivation to do this film? How did you get the idea? I am so thrilled that you did though. I thanked you during the Q and A, however as a music lover, hip hop being at the top of my list, I can't thank you enough for giving us an inside look into the influence of hippo (as the Cuban's pronounce it, so cute by the way) in Cuba, since I have never had the opportunity to visit it, although that day may come sooner than we think possible.

Respectfully yours, Oriannies.


 

I have never been a big fan of Rap and/or Hip Hop but the film East of Havana taught me about its significance. One of the characters (Soandry) put it best when he said, 'Hip-hop means struggle. It means having a determined attitude towards life. Rebellion. The fight to make things better. The detoxification of the mind and body. To me, it means freedom.'

The film ended on a somewhat bleak note, however my faith was restored when I learned that two of the main characters - Miki "Flow" and Mayjori defected and are no living in the U.S.

Rappers (in the U.S.) would do well to see this film and reaquaint themselves with Rap in it purest form. In other words, it ain't all about "BLING."

Kudos to the filmmakers for having the integrity to allow the characters to tell their stories with candor and dignity.

In the end, East of Havana raises as many questions as it answers, which is as it should be. I highly recommend this beautiful and inspiring film.


 

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