I was interviewed by all the english language tv news and public publicity shows… NBS, CBS and NBC. The spanish language Univision and Telemundo stayed away, hmmm… what a surprise, with the exception of Frank Steinhart; producer of MegaTV who put us on the evening news with the charismatic Camilo Egana.
Sep 26
Sep 16
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The film has not been able to secure a venue in Miami until now, which is why I and a few others stepped in to make sure audiences here could see it. I hope to see some of you there!
My father and I will be around to answer questions after the screening.
Robert “Robbie” Rosenberg
Buy tickets in advance from TicketMaster.
Find out more information
If you can’t make it don’t worry. We have secured more Miami Screenings!
Miami Beach Cinematheque
Showtimes:
Mon. 9/22 – 8:00P
Tue. 9/23 - 8:00P
Wed. 9/24 – 8:00P
Address:
512 Espanola Way Miami Beach, FL 33139
Phone: (305) 673-4567
Tickets: Buy Tickets Online
Apr 27
Killer lives happily ever after, in Miami of course
In my documentary film, The Man of Two Havanas, my father, Max Lesnik, says, “Miami is like a hell where everything is inverted, murder is characterized as heroic, acts of terrorism as acts of heroism…”
He is referring to Luis Posada Carriles, who is not in the news today. He was not in the news today, nor was he in the news last Thursday when he was released from jail and whisked to Miami. However, he was in the news in Cuba because he masterminded the downing of a Cuban jetliner killing 73 innocents including the entire Cuban fencing team. This was the first act of airline terrorism in our hemisphere. The very first, I promise. Check it out…
So why was Luis Posada released rather than held under the provisions of the Patriot Act? Isn’t that what is for? If you sneeze in Kabul, you might just find yourself in Guantanamo, if you’re lucky… If not, in an underground cell in the outskirts of Cairo. But if you are Luis Posada, the darling of the right wing Cuban-American Congresspersons from Florida, trained and coddled by the CIA, then perhaps 73 dead way back in 1976 is just not enough to invoke The Patriot Act.
Well then, how about his most recent charge? Luis Posada waltzed into Miami after having been pardoned by the outgoing president of Panama, who coincidentally, summers in Key Biscayne; where the Cuban-American right wing elite meet and greet presidents and skillfully broker deals on behalf of their own.
But wait, what was the charge in Panama? Wasn’t he just trying to kill Fidel Castro, communist anti-American thorn in our side for 47 years and counting? Well, yes, kind of… in fact, he was attempting to blow up a University auditorium where Castro was scheduled to speak to a packed house. Authorities confiscated 33 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives. For those of you not in the know, 33 pounds of C-4 would have blown the auditorium to smithereens and sent hundreds of Panamanian students to their deaths.
But this too, is not enough for the Bush administration to invoke the provisions of The Patriot Act. After all, its not like they were American college students, right?
The Bush Administration wants Luis Posada to just go away. He’s an embarrassment and shows up “The War on Terror” for what it is- a political tool. The Patriot Act is applied selectively. It is liberally applied to our enemies and conveniently overlooked for our friends. This double standard is shown in high relief for all the world to see. But no one is seeing because the mainstream media has fallen silent on the case of Luis Posada Carriles.
With shootings on our own campuses by gun wielding kids on anti-depressants, who cares about a couple of hundred Panamanian students, let alone a couple of dozen Cuban fencers?
Nope, case closed. Nothing to see here folks. This story just has no legs. And because of this, Luis Posada Carriles will soon be walking around Miami where he belongs, a hero, for all the world to see.
Apr 21
For Cinephiles Only:
My documentary, The Man of Two Havanas, is my attempt to understand why my dad always put Cuba and his public life above his family. Well, namely ME.
Well, that’s not really all that it is about…
It is also about his friendship with Castro (they made a revolution together), his subsequent breakup and reunion.
Well that’s not really all it’s about either…
It’s also about the fact that I grew up as the daughter of the number one target of the anti-Castro terrorists. So why a movie? Why not an essay, a magazine article or even a book? Well, simply, because I can.
But wait just a minute. My film idols were never the Maysles Brothers, but rather Antonioni and Bunuel. Their films could not be further from the documentary form. Antonioni, with his cinematic or aesthetic climax, rarely coinciding with the dramatic one; and Bunuel…well, the Bunuel I love is poetry in motion…not at all suited for documentary treatment.
So what is a filmmaker trained at UCLA by Polish genius Jerzy Antczak obsessed with the art of the moving master doing with a camera glued to a tripod in a living room in Miami interviewing her dad?
Well, I’m doing the best I can.
My idea was this: let my father tell his story and see what happens. Not much of a plan. No storyboards, no shot list, no script. Jesus, no script!! What the hell am I doing? When is the director showing up? So this is documentary filmmaking?
After hours and hours of torturing my dad in our living room in Miami and following him around the two Havanas, I had 160 hours of footage and a Final Cut Pro that kept crashing and deleting. But I had a secret weapon: a kickass editor, Tirsa Hackshaw.
As my eyes glazed over watching the endless parade of pictures I had an aha! moment. We need a story to tell this story. We need structure. Oh right, we need a script. Hmm…interesting. But even with all of that there was still something missing.
The missing element was me. I was missing. The time had come to make this massive blob my own, to use all of my skills as well as Antonioni’s and Bunuel’s and the Maysles’ Brothers and Warhol’s and any other artist I had devoured, dissected and internalized. Hmmm… The director, working in a great partnership with the editor and a script, and viola, it’s a movie!
Well not exactly. Many cuts later, 36 cuts, caffeinated nights and 1 & 1/2 years, something began to take shape. And finally, my movie is complete and ready for its world premiere, not sheltered by the mountains of Utah, but at the Tribeca Film Festival in front of the most film savvy, Film Forum attending, sophisticated and critical audiences in America.
And there’s even a moving master, courtesy of archival footage from “I am Cuba” (”Soy Cuba” 1964). And because this blog is for Cinephiles only, I know I don’t need to explain the reference.
Wish me luck!
