Daniel Orkent is no longer the public editor - I think last week was his last on the job. The email address should go to the new person, whomever that might be, I would think.

It reminds me of a TV anchor I worked with here in Jacksonville. She and her big name photographer husband went to Havana for their honeymoon a few years ago, and she came back talking about how wonderful the lives of the Cuban people were because they had no worry. fidel took care of them. I asked if she actually got out and circulated among the people, ate in the non-tourist areas, etc. "Of course not," she said. "We were afraid we might catch something."

Don't expect Monte Rouge to be shown.
Don't expect Habana Blues to be shown.
(check site, sound on: http://wwws.warnerbros.es/movies/habanablues/)
This is NYC boys and gilrs, where che is cool and cagastro have all the libzillas smitten!

And, yes Val, and never know if the NYTimes is America's own Granma or if it is "Pravda-on-the-Hudson"....

http://www.hffny.com/web05/schedule.htm

In this website you can find all the movies that are going to be shown. Look for the pieces of propaganda signed by "American" Estela Bravo, with whom I am proud to have had a loud confrontation at a book presentation at Hunter College, NYC. After all, I am an American by choice, pride and convictions and she exploits the fact that she was lucky enough to have been born here to support a bloody tyrant.
I think I will paint some ABAJO FIDEL! graffitti in NYC...
Of course, there's nothing portraying the view from our side of the fence or even from inside Cuba in the form of non official movies or videos. No Monte Rouge for you. And no, no Habana Blues for you either.

So Ms. Rosenberg your organization is "totally
culltural." Guess the dissident films have
no cultural value. Of course we must stay
away from the political side. We wouldn't want
to interfere with any attempts to stamp out
all things deemed not culturally acceptable.
Perhaps Ms. Rosenberg would have enjoyed a
Nazi propaganda film or two while her brothers
and sisters were sent to the gas chamber.
Pass the popcorn.

This is digusting. Here's the link to the festivals site. Don't go there if you've just eaten. http://www.hffny.com
The media liason for the festival is:

Diana Vargas 212-746-1839
press@dianavargas.com

The NY Times is not the only sponsor.

Are Delta Airlines, NBC, Telemundo, and El Diario a bunch of leftist scumbag commies? What about Marazul charters? They have offices in Miami and they fly licensed people to Havana. They're sponsoring too, why don't you picket their sales offices. . .??

If this pisses you off that much, why don't you set up your OWN film festival with the films YOU want to present here in NYC? I'm sure there are many creative and enterprising people in South Florida, like Reinaldo Cruz, with the money, connections, and sponsors to do it. I'm sure it'll get a positive response up here, there's certainly a community nearby that will support it. . .

But this kind of selective presentation of information is just another half-assed blog of the thousands that are out there. When you adopt the tactics of your enemy which you obviously hate and despise so much, how does that make you better than your enemy? Didn't the recent death of the pope TEACH you anything Blabber-lu?? ;-)

Ah, yes. Yumaguy. I knew it was only a matter of time before the anonymous commentators came onto this post. How absolutely brave of you.

Lets see, first Delta Airlines, to my knowledge, has never publicly backed the government of fidel castro. NBC is, well, NBC. Another one of those hollier than thou Mainstream Media I love fidel catterboxes. Telemundo is a Mexican owned corporation and we all know how those Mexicans hate fidel. And Marazul charters is, surprise! owned by the Cuban ministry of defense.

Obviously, if I wanted to not show what other sponsors this film festival has, I would have removed all links that show their sponsorships.

Now, seriously, go back to your tio fidel, its time for his 2 oclock ass kissing.

Gee Yumi-baby I seem to remember that the Pope
was instrumental in bringing an end to communism
in another part of the world. Ah yes the left's
beloved Europe. Be damned that Pope. Oh well
maybe you and NBC can ignore that legacy and just
dwell on the Pope's unwillingness to yield on the abortion issue.

And add it Venezuelan press and intelectuals. Uruguay press. Argentinian Página 12.

Val: A dazzling post! Thanks for telling us!

Yuma-guy, look up the definition of truth and propaganda. There is a difference which you seem to have missed between the two.

The NY times enjoys the advantages of a bully pulpit which the other organizations you mentioned, do not have.

Theirs is in fact a "yellow press" effort to slant public opinion and influence decision making by our "by poll" government.

Another movie that won't be shown is "the lost city" (Andy Garcia). No suprises here....

This is the letter I sent to the New York Times:

Dear Messieurs,

As it's traditional in a communist leaning newspaper, where only the news that fit your agenda get to be printed, and following your lines of work since the times of Herbert Matthew, you're again playing on the team of a bloodthirsty tyrant sometimes called Fidel Castro.

Your last stunt of being the major sponsoring force behind his propaganda machine, movies in this case is a point short of appalling, but you're probably planning to sponsor a screening of Hitler propaganda movies, as well, please let me know, so I can have two events to boycott.

The worst part is that you know exactly what you're doing. Your newspaper supposedly defends the freedom of the press, the freedom to dissent, the freedom of assembly, the possibility of having different political parties and the freedom of expression. All I am seeing is that you use all these freedoms guaranteed by the many Americans who died for this country in order to promote a tyranny that suppresses all the aforementioned liberties.

It's interesting that the New York Times (or shall I call it Granma - US Edition?) lends it support to a Festival that do not show a single movie opposing the regime that oppresses Cuba.
Have you heard of Monte Rouge? (Cuba)
Have you heard of Habana Blues? (Spain)
Have you heard of The Lost City? (US Andy Garcia)

I am positive that this is news for you and that you simply don't care a lot to hear about it. It's not fashionable or cool not to support Castro or not to wear a Che T-Shirt.

As long as you are apologist of a murderous regime you share culpability.

Now, this is my take on your Film Festival.
(illustration omited for posting)

Prepare to report for what history has in store for us when Castro finally passes away and your newspaper is forced to cover the real news and to offer your readership a honest view of what you have, until now, so fiercely supported.

Sincerely
Xray Charlie Bravo

Sorry, but I believe that my letter will be passed to the secret police in Cuba, their undercover henchmen in the US, and your extremist leftwinger goons here, so I protect my identity here and in Cuba.

CB, Some people may think you suffer from paranoia but I just recently read an article about how countries run by dictators are clamping down on bloggers, desperately trying to stop the flow of information, because, as we all know information fuels the desire for freedom. Who knows how far the bastards arm reaches.

Katheleen,
I know them. I know their repressive techniques, the blackmailing, the violence against your loved ones, and the inmense pressure even abroad.
cagastro is in his last leg (pun intended) and it's a wounded beast, very dangerous at this time. His goons are ready to hit...
Thanks for the good thoughts... I am afraid for my friends inside the island. They have the shortest end of the stick on this.

A SCATHING movie about the misery that is Cuba is "Who the hell is Julliette", a semi-documentary film on the story of a teen-age Jinetera. The most poignant part is this spunky and gorgeous Cuban girl says straight to the camera:
“Me morire de puta, pero NO de hambre"
"I will die as a whore but I will not die of starvation"
The film won accolades throughout Europe yet not a single notice in the USA press.
The last scene is of an even younger and more beautiful child/girl taking Jullietas place in her “business corner”.
That burns to the core of your soul.

Hat tip to KillCastro (actually, KillCastro, I am tipping my wings to you)
This is a portrait of the Cuban life that libzillas find so compellingly amazing!
Of course the review is tainted by the libhoneydripping of the NYU critic!

Who the Hell Is Juliette? [Quién diablos es Juliette?]


Medium Film
Keywords Abandonment, Child Abuse, Children, Developing Countries, Father-Daughter Relationship, Grief, Individuality, Latina/Latino Experience, Poverty, Rape, Sexual Abuse, Sexuality, Suicide, Survival,
Summary When shooting a music video in Cuba, director Carlos Macovich chooses a young Havana jintera to dance opposite the model Fabiola Quiroz. Several years later, he returns to find out what happened to the pretty, feisty girl they picked off the street to dance in their video. The documentary explores Yuliet's and Fabiola's relationships with the families, their fathers, and each other.
Commentary An unconventional documentary about an unconventional subject, Who the Hell Is Juliette? introduces to us a young Cuban woman who has survived in Havana under the most difficult circumstances. Although she had previously found the briefest of fame as somebody slightly more prominent than an extra in a music video, her life remains profoundly arduous: she alludes to working as a prostitute; the grandmother who raised her describes beating her; her mother attempted suicide by self-immolation but did not die right away, succumbing a short time later to a heart attack; her father has moved to the United States and has a new family there; later in the film Juliette describes being raped.

And yet despite all this, the documentary is strutting, flippant, at times quite silly. The director suggests that one way to draw out the resilience of these characters and allow them to show both their vulnerabilities and the grace they bring to their suffering is through a playful energy, and does so without making of their grace or their suffering a virtue (a morality and a platitude that would not fit in with the film).

Comic appropriation of the documentary form is epitomized by that oeuvre of collaborative projects involving Christopher Guest (from This Is Spinal Tap to A Mighty Wind). These "mockumentaries" have gained much comic mileage from the deeply self-conscious attempts of its characters to appear unself-conscious in front of the camera. The more effort they put into pretending not to be self-conscious (an ironically self-conscious effort) the more they reveal their affectations, snobberies, etc. Who the Hell Is Juliette? sidesteps this problem of self-consciousness by giving the characters the room to be self-conscious about themselves and each other: they play and impersonate one another, they swagger and dance and mock. Their identities then are not fixed into a specific narrative but develop out of a lattice of relationships, interpersonal and evolving, laughing and dancing, at once intimate and distant.

Although the jumbled cuts and varying styles of the cinematography may suggest a music video or puzzle, a better analogy may be mosaic or collage. And from this evolves a winning, impressionistic film about people who cherish and enjoy their lives, not despite the hardships they endure but through them.

Director Marcovich, Carlos
Studio Several Mexican production companies
Year 1997
Color/BW Color
Running Time 91 minutes
Miscellaneous In Spanish with English subtitles. Winner of the Latin America Cinema Award at the Sundance Film Festival (1998)
Video Source Kino Video DVD (2000)
Annotated by Henderson, Schuyler W.
Date of Entry 1/28/05
Last Revised 1/31/05

It won a Sundance Award (who the hell is Juliette?) but since it depicts cagastroland as a place where all evils of hell meet apartheid, they are not showing it at the even more communist Film Festival in NYC.
As a note, I read that Salma (I actually found her name with an alternative spelling: Selma) Hayek was somehow involved in it's production but I haven't been able to verify that. All I know is that she loves cheguevara. Which is appaling, after knowing how destroyed is Cuba, both in the physical and cultural realms as a result of a tyranny whose most hard core tenets are based on che's dogmas.

And a low pass wing tipping to ya too buddy!
The Film IS a documentary, with just a couple of edits to give it continuity and sort of a subplot.
When Julliete (actually the name of the movie is "Quien coño es Yuliette" sort of making fun at the new trendy way Cuban children are named.. Who ever heard of anyone named Yazumiliandi , SWEAR to GOD I met someone by that name!)
Smacks open a can of SPAM against a rock and peels that tin can and sticks her fingers in it and tastes IT, HER FACE just lights up like she just bit into her first filet mignon!
AND.. anyone who says this was scripted is a fucking commie bastard motherfucker who will die a slow death of colon cancer in a medical center in Luyano.
Salma Hayek is on the film for a sec, In a limo or coming out of a limo at an award show where Juliette was invited, she kisses Juliette hello and that is that but I do think there's a production credit for her (she forked some dough to get it done)
I think people like Selma Hayek don’t even make the connection between Che and the CastroCuba of today.
Anyone interested in today's Cuba should see this movie.

Another GREAT anti-Castro film is "Azucar Amarga" ("Bitter Sugar") That was done with clandestine shots in La Habana but had to be finished in Santo Domingo and Miami, since things got VERY dangerous while filming in La Habana.

Yes KillCastro, that's a great movie, and by the way, also ignored by the schmucks at the NYTimes.

About the new names in Cuba... There was a law, from Colonial times, defining what was a name and what wasn't. It had to be rooted in tradition

(take note, tradition, not religion, how's that for an advanced country even under colonial rule, so you couldn't name a kid with a funny sounding saintly name either)

cagastro did away with that, when he decided to dechristianize the country and make it a bit lawless so he could come and destroy everything at will... Brace for this one buddy, I went to Guantanamo once in my life. What a pity of a once beautiful place, but the names of the people I met were amazing!!!! Yacuzaide, also called Yacuzaidita. Onedollar, Usnavy, Usmail... of course guys whose names were Ussnimitz or similar. You got it. They hated cagastro and in their ignorance they named their kids with names that represented the Empire: One Dollar, US Navy, US Mail, USS Nimitz and so on and so forth.
I met a jackload of people with names starting with Y in the whole country. Or invented names. Or sorry names or whatever. Once people get their freedom back they will understand that they need real names and you will see long lines at the City Hall for them getting it straight. Another thing, I think that they gave strange names to the kids to live in some sort of fantasy land, where nobody gets old enough to be ashamed of such a strange word serving as a name. Or they didn't expect to live much... Who knows. In all cases it's a sign of the moral crisis and the despair... Those kids with strange names don't have to blame their parents, they have cagastro to blame!

I did notice that some names are phonetic translations of song titles in English, like
"Analofer"" ("And I love her") and "Onliyu" (Only You). It takes you a while of saying the name then you realize what THAT's about.
But.. Usnavy has to be the hands down winner -- what a pisser !

Imagine, I spent a lot of time at construction sites with people with such names. I thought that I had heard it all, when some guy anounced that his common law wife has given birth to a little girl. Poor innocent me asked what the name (which still resonates in my mind)was and this is waht came as an answer: Orlandelia Yarina de La Caridad Martinez Martinez.
Both of them were Martinez (unrelated) Orlandelia is a mixture or Orlando and Delia (at least the parents had normal names, imagine a combination of Orlandelia and Usnavy!!!!) and Yarina was because they had just shown on tv the life of the famous pimp Yarini. De la Caridad is obvious, Catholicism and Santeria...
Then I had the honor of meeting Yuneisis, Yurisladys, Yusimi (you see me?) Yusimit (you see meat?) Yusimil, Yureinis, and many others... for some reason I thought that everything was related to the beauty of el Valle de Yumuri, because some of them were really beautiful girls... Oh, and I met a guy called Yolaramis (son of Yolanda and Aramis, this is of quasi mythological proportions) Yoveidis is another creative name.... for a guy!
But the one that I really like is YUMISLADY. Or simply, la Yumita. Thinking of that, Yumislady and Usnavy are more likely to hitch it up and set shack together than Orlandelia Yarina and Usnavy, maybe she gets lucky with Usmail.

Those names remind me of young girls with really stupid tattoos.
I remember this chick I knew with a "Rockabilly Baby" on her left boob. It used to crack me up thinking of this old lady of 80 in a nursing home and tits sagging down to her hoo-ha with a "Rockabilly Baby" tattoo.
That mixing of parents first names began way back. One of my childhood buddies first to have a kid named him Danan. His name is Daniel his wife Nancy
It cracked me up when he wrote to tell me. At that point I knew these people left back in Cuba were REALLY bored!
You think anyone will have the cojones to name a kid “Yumavisa”?

I wouldn't be (minimally) surprised!
And, yeah, imagine that generation in their 80s, sagging skin with deformed tattoos, tons of piercings and unpronounceable names (I bet my hands that you can't pronounce them with dentures or no teeth)
Read (loudly) the roster of athlets of any Cuban sport team, it's an amazing experience!