The Man of Two Havanas (2007)

Sub-Genres - Biography, Interpersonal Relationships, Politics & Government, Race & Ethnicity  |   Run Time - 93 min.  |   Countries - Cuba, United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Nathan Southern

Cuban-American director Vivien Lesnik Weisman helms the deeply personal and finely-felt documentary The Man of Two Havanas. With this project, Havana-born, Miami-raised Weisman explores the troubling personal history of her Communist father, journalist Max Lesnik -- a close ally of Fidel Castro and an outspoken opponent of the 1962 U.S. anti-Cuban embargo (and the Cuban Democracy Act to which it led). Because of his sociopolitical activity, Lesnik became a repeated target of systematic, anti-Cuban violence, including drive-by shootings, death threats, and almost constant bombings, which at times escalated to seven per day and hundreds per year - rendering a well-adjusted life impossible for the Lesnik family. On a horrifying note, Weisman reveals that those with blood on their hands were largely CIA operatives, including a reprogrammed Cuban exile now imprisoned by the post-9/11 government's War on Terror - and whose trial begets disturbing insights into the nature of the George W. Bush administration. In investigating this angle, Weisman incorporates controversial, revealing audio tapes culled from the terrorist's testimony. The director's primary thrust, however, involves exploring her own relationship with her father and the sociopolitical changes in Cuba over the past 50 years, as well as the nature of personal obligation and social commitment per se.

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Keywords

bombing, CIA (Central-Intelligence-Agency), Communist-party, Cuba, drive-by shooting, journalism, social-change