Film: “Fidel: The Untold Story”

Center for Global Justice presents:
Film:  “Fidel: The Untold Story”

Teatro Santa Ana
60 pesos

Fidel Castro was one of the major world figures of the last sixty years, an unusual distinction for a leader of a small country.  Loved by many, hated by some, Fidel (as he was affectionately called) guided Cuba in its effort to achieve independence and national dignity to become a socialist society.  Now his nation is joined by millions around the world to mourn his death at age 90.

The public persona of Fidel is familiar to us all.  But the human being behind that is often illusive.  Estela Bravo’s 2001 film “Fidel: The Untold Story” juxtaposes the personal and the anecdotal with the history of the first 40 years of the Cuban Revolution and Castro’s fight to survive the post-Soviet period and the continued U.S. embargo.  It includes original and unusual interviews with Castro and exclusive footage from Cuban State archives, offering an intimate view into one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time.  For the first time on film, we see Fidel Castro in a more intimate light, swimming with his bodyguards, visiting his childhood home and school, joking with his friend Nelson Mandela, meeting with Elian Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with the Buena Vista Social Club.

Today many are asking “What’s going to happen after Fidel death?”  The best answer to that question came some years ago from Ricardo Alarcon, then President of Cuba’s parliament. “Well, you know, people probably asked that question in the time of Mozart, too. ‘What’s going to happen to music after Mozart?’ But you know, after Mozart, there was still music. In fact, after Mozart, there was still Mozart’s music.”