In correlation with an exhibit by political Cuban prisoner, Gerardo Hernández, Calles y Sueños and the Chicago Cuba Coalition have put together four films via grassroots muscle in order to educate the Chicago community of happenings around the world.
“The reason why we are doing this festival and show now is because we, that is Calles y Sueños-Chicago, continue to feel that is it necessary to continue in nurturing dialogue around issues that are impact our Latino communities,” said Christina Obregón, coordinator at Calles y Sueños. “It is in our mission and vision to challenge and provoke the Latino community to be critical thinkers and analyzers about what happens around the world so that we can use ‘Nuestra arte y cultura’ as a tool against oppression.”
Although there are only four movies, Obregón says that they hope to make the festival bigger as the years go on. They did not receive any grants, sponsorship or funding for this project.
Hernández, who was sentenced to a double-life term and is not allowed to see his family, has been locked up for 13 years in a case that has been called the single most outstanding “unfair trial” by Amnesty International.
“Gerardo and the rest of the Five are locked up for a collective four life terms plus 77 years for blowing the whistle on terrorists operations carried out by violent Miami-based “anti-Castro” groups –groups whose open violations of U.S. and international law Washington has turned a blind eye to for decades even while they killed and maimed nearly 10,000 Cuban civilians,” according to information released by Calles y Sueños. ”Gerardo along with the rest of the Five volunteered to infiltrate these groups to prevent further loss of life. Outrageously, their turning over yard-high documentation of terrorist crimes to the FBI led to their being charged and convicted of “conspiracy” for revealing them.”
The exhibition will display 30 original political cartoons by Hernández from his prison cell and runs from March 9 to April 28.
Calles y Sueños & The Chicago Cuba Coalition invite you to the launching of the
First Annual Chicago Cuban Film Festival
Sunday March 18
‘Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?’ directed by Saul Landau
Chicago premiere.
Will The Real Terrorist Please Stand Up documents the history involving the CIA, violence, and the five Cubans serving long sentences in U.S. prisons. The film features an interview with Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban Five who is currently serving life imprisonment in Victorville Maximum Security Prison for “conspiracy to commit espionage.” Landau also interviews Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, and others who have acknowledged perpetrating acts of terrorism in Cuba as “freedom fighters.” Delightful surprises are appearances in the film by Fidel Castro and Danny Glover.
[2011, 68 min.]
3pm
Friday March 30
‘In the Wrong Body’ (En el Cuerpo Equivocado)
Chicago premiere.
The documentary is a moving portrayal of Mavi’s life, Cuba’s first gender reassignment. Mavi Susel has had to endure discrimination and abuse, but she courageously pursued her dream of realizing a reassignment surgery, the first to be performed in Cuba, in 1988. The growing national discussion in Cuba promoting inclusion and respect for diversity has been led by Cuba’s National Sex Education Center.
[Dir. Marilyn Solaya, 2011, 52 min..]
Screened with ‘Cuba’s Campaign against Homophobia’
[10 min.]
7pm
Sunday April 15
‘Roots of My Heart’ (Raíces de mi Corazon)
An independently produced short feature film, deals for the first time in Cuban media with the 1912 massacre of thousands of members of the Independents of Color, the hemisphere’s first black political party outside Haiti.
[Dir. Gloria Relonda, 2001]
3pm
Saturday, April 21
‘Maestra’
The Cuban Literacy Campaign in 1961 was one of the farthest-reaching and most successful literacy campaigns to date, one of the pinnacle moments in the social history of the Americas. This 56-minute documentary tells the story of the campaign through personal stories of women literacy workers who went to the mountains and valleys across the island to teach—and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.
[Dir. Catherine Murphy,30 min.]
7pm
All film screening will be shown at
Calles y Sueños
1900 South Carpenter
Chicago, IL
Free & Open to the Public
For more information contact
773-208-0553 or 312-952-2618
facebook.com/Calles y Sueños-Chicago
