USA,
2005, 90 min
Shown in 2005
CREDITS
- dir
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Mike Cahill, Brit Marling
- prod
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Nick Shumaker
- cam
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Mike Cahill, Brit Marling
- editor
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Mike Cahill, Brit Marling
- mus
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Craig Wedren
- source
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Rolling Shin, 2000 Kew Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90046. FAX: 323-654-8375. EMAIL: britmarling@mac.com.
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COMMENTS
Mike Cahill, Brit Marling, Nick Shumaker in person.
OTHER
A classically trained ballerina waits for an overseas dance tour. Another one helps her mother’s penniless dance company. A boxer wins 120 fights and world respect as a champion. Another one lives with his mother and is 3-1, waiting to collect enough money to fight again. Which ballerina and which boxer live in Cuba? Which two live in Miami? You will be surprised at the many revelations in this vivid, offbeat documentary that shows Cuba’s youth to be its greatest resource and, sometimes, its greatest export. The lives of four young athletes are a lens through which the filmmakers view U.S.-Cuban relations and life in Miami’s Little Havana. Fusing boxing and ballet into one passionate endeavor, the film travels between Havana and Miami, raising the specter of the controversial crash of Cubana 455 in 1976, revealing images of the many people who have tried to escape by boat, and the ever-present possibility of defection among athletes and artists. A story by and about youth (directors Brit Marling and Mike Cahill began the film while students at Georgetown University) and studded with visual effects and an omniscient point of view, the film shoots from the street up.
—Cleveland International Film Festival
FACTOID #4
2006 New Italian Cinema tributee Marco Belocchio’s debut film Fists in the Pocket screened at the Tenth San Francisco International Film Festival in 1966.
