CUBANOS – LIFE AND DEATH OF A REVOLUTION

A film by Yan Giroux

Director

Yan Giroux

Production

Yan Giroux

Language

Spanish, French

Year

2007

82 min, Documentary, Canada, 2.0

Cubanos, a completely independent production, liberates itself from television convention to draw an impressionist portrait of the Cuban community. Sincere interviews and sequence shots reveal an identity fragmented by 48 years of dictatorship, a people struggling to leave the 20th century behind. While music may barely camouflage the misery and corruption in Cuba, the sounds of engines and commercial radio can’t mask the cultural gap between the island and the very active community in Miami. The main character, Catuey, a Cuban musician who has been living in Québec for a number of years, brings to his journey and his songs the image of an ideal Cuba hurt by the division in its people and the group-think that prevails in Miami. Confronted with the contradictions among his countrymen and his own demons, Catuey ends his odyssey drained and disappointed not to have found a simple path to reconciliation.

Cinematography: Yan Giroux

Editing: Yan Giroux

Sound: Andres Norambuena, Denis-Éric Pedneault

Music: Catuey

Graphist: Mathieu Jacques

Production: Jérôme Couture

Yan Giroux

Yan Giroux independently produced his documentaries between 2007 and 2012, allowing him to develop his vision, which would later grow with more resources and ambition in his fiction short films. In addition to being recognized locally, his shorts have been showcased in several international festivals, including Sundance Film Festival. His first feature film, For Those Who Don’t Read Me (2018), won several awards at the Gala Québec Cinéma.

 

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