Surfing with the Enemy
2011 · 56m · Documentary
The story of a group of surfers from Havana struggling to establish a niche for their sport in Cuba’s restrictive society. Guided by Eduardo Valdes, founder of the Havana Surf Association, two filmmakers travel across the island to the notorious Guantanamo province, home to the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, as well as the country’s best waves. Searching for surf along this controversial coast, they discover a forbidden paradise just miles from the American border, and learn what it means to be a surfer and a citizen of modern-day Cuba.
More Like This
AHORA SI LLEGO!
2015 · ★ 10
The first Road Movie feature film made by the Italian artist Sanzi together with the Cuban Balboa is inspired by friendship, the island and the motorbike. The two artists used, for the first time in Cuba, the form of the Road Movie--the cinematic genre the plot of which is developed during a trip.
More info →
Buena Vista Social Club
1999 · ★ 7.5
In this fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary, American guitarist Ry Cooder brings together a group of legendary Cuban folk musicians (some in their 90s) to record a Grammy-winning CD in their native city of Havana. The result is a spectacular compilation of concert footage from the group's gigs in Amsterdam and New York City's famed Carnegie Hall, with director Wim Wenders capturing not only the music -- but also the musicians' life stories.
More info →
Sankara's Orphans
2023
Thomas Sankara came to power in Burkina Faso in 1983, with the promise of a revolutionary government that would transform the West African country. To help build the revolution, he sent 600 children — many orphans from rural areas — to be educated in Cuba. But after Sankara’s assassination, the children were stranded. The last would only return to Burkina Faso in 2005. SANKARA’S ORPHANS tells their stories through interviews with some of the 600, along with archival footage of their lives on Cuba’s Isle of Youth — where both Sankara and Fidel Castro came to visit. Along with their education, the children worked in the fields and received weapons training. This, combined with their idealism, frightened the new Burkina Faso regime, which worried they might return and take up arms.
More info →
The Westsiders
2010
The rise and fall of The Westsiders surf gang through the eyes of three best friends.
More info →
Castro: The World's Most Watched Man
2015 · ★ 6.8
Fidel Castro employed a vast spy network that helped him remain in power.
More info →
I'm Going to Santiago
1964 · ★ 6.4
This black-and-white film is a loving portrait of Santiago de Cuba and its people. It provides a view of Cuba as a picturesque country, the product of an earthy mix of black and criollo cultures. The film uses historical images which portray the end of the eighteenth century when Haitian slave owners fled with their slaves to Cuba after the Haitian Revolution.
More info →
Cuba's Cancer Hope
2020
When the U.S. trade embargo left Cuba isolated from medical resources, Cuban scientists were forced to get creative. Now they've developed lung cancer vaccines that show so much promise, some Americans are defying the embargo and traveling to Cuba for treatment. In an unprecedented move, Cuban researchers are working with U.S. partners to make the medicines more widely available.
More info →
Che, Today and Always
1983 · ★ 10
A sound system plays Commander Ernesto Guevara's speech, delivered on October 20, 1962, during the Second Anniversary of the Young Communist League, along with a series of archival images of the revolutionary leader visiting factories and meeting with workers.
More info →
Sicko
2007 · ★ 7.4
A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States whose main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance, the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.
More info →
Tent City
1981
The story of a group of Cubans who arrived in Miami during the Mariel Boatlift and were housed in an improvised camp in the heart of the city. Everyone lived together —men and women, homosexuals and heterosexuals, separated only by cloth curtains that hung from ropes suspended between the beds, like floating walls.
More info →
Craving Cuba
2016
A documentary that explores bi-cultural identity through the Cuban-American lens, exploring the Cuban-American experience and their complicated relationship with Cuba.
More info →