Miami Dade College (MDC) has announced the launch of the Cuban Cinema Series, presented by the Miami Film Festival!

The Series will feature presentations of six emblematic Cuban films at the newly renovated, state-of-the-art theater at MDC’s Koubek Center, in the heart of Little Havana. Admission is free for all films in the series. 

Founded and directed by renown film critic and author Alejandro Ríos, who originated the Series in 1993, featuring filmmakers, special guests, free valet, live music, and refreshments available for purchase. 

The Series will resume after the 41st Miami Film Festival, scheduled for April 5-14, 2024. This upcoming festival will include a Spotlight on Cuban Films also programmed by Ríos.

The Series is sponsored by ArtesMiami. Here are some words from both the President and the Chair:

“ArtesMiami is proud to partner with the Miami Film Festival as cinema is an important art form mirroring our lives. Through film we see stories that resonate with our own lives.”
– Maria Bechily, Chair of ArtesMiami, Inc.

“Becoming the Producing Sponsor of the Spotlight on Cuba films at the Miami Film Festival and of the Cuban Cinema Series is a great source of pride for us at. ArtesMiami. We are committed to supporting Hispanic artists, including filmmakers, and to promoting great cultural organizations such as the Miami Film Festival so this partnership with Miami Dade College is especially meaningful for our nonprofit organization.”
– Aida Levitan, PhD, President of ArtesMiami, Inc.

Upcoming Films:

El Caso Padilla
Thursday, May 16, 2024 7:00 PM EDT
Miami Dade College Koubek Memorial Center
Havana, spring 1971: The poet Heberto Padilla has just been set free and appears before the Cuban Writers’ Union where he pronounces a statement of “heartfelt self-criticism”, declares himself to be a counterrevolutionary agent and throws accusations of complicity at many of his colleagues present at the event, among them, his wife. A month previously, his arrest under the accusation of endangering the security of the Cuban state had mobilised prominent intellectuals all over the world, who wrote a letter to Fidel Castro calling for the release of the poet, whose only sin had been to dissent through his poetic work. The writer’s mea culpa, the recording of which is shown for the first time to the public, marks the narrative line of a story including the testimonies of Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jorge Edwards and Fidel Castro.