Havanna mi amor

St. Louis

Hamburg, Germany, 1939. Getting a passage aboard the passenger liner St. Louis seems to be the last hope of salvation for more than nine hundred German Jews who, desperate to escape the atrocious persecution to which they are subjected by the Nazi regime, intend to emigrate to Cuba.

The Future of an Illusion

The Future of an Illusion (1997) is a poetic, semi-documentary portrait of Havana on New Year’s Day, following seven characters whose lives intertwine amid the crumbling beauty of the city. An old widow, a young prostitute, a fallen aristocrat, a jobless couple, a weary coachman, a lonely child, and a wandering poet each face their own illusions of change, love, and escape. Through their stories, Franco de Peña crafts a lyrical meditation on hope and disappointment, where the promise of renewal fades into the quiet persistence of everyday survival.

Alain Jean-Marie, impressions cubaines

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, an intimate documentary follows the illustrious pianist and great French jazz musician, Alain Jean-Marie from Guadeloupe, on a recent trip to Cuba. He talks about his career, his adolescence, and his youth in Guadeloupe, where he was rocked and deeply influenced by Cuban music. Director Bertrand Fèvre followed this now essential artist in Havana, to be discovered or rediscovered through a film set to jazz.

Cuba, A Paradise on the Brink

Will Cubans be able to safeguard their heritage of pristine Nature and preserved ecological treasures under this new era, as they are facing the combined pressure of money and tourism? What policies can be implemented to maintain the island’s spectacular wilderness?

Alma Anciana

Three juxtaposing stories taking place in Portugal, Austria and Cuba create an intimate and poetic portrait of the daily lives and struggles of the elderly in an unstable world, seen through the eyes of their grandchildren.

Information Violence

Frank Sinatra - Primetime

This release brings together a trio of primetime television - 1968 Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing, 1969's Sinatra, and the 1977 Sinatra and Friends. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing With Special Guests Diahann Carroll And The 5th Dimension Highlights include a medley of spirituals sung with Diahann Carroll and a swingin' pop interlude with then-chart-toppers The 5th Dimension. Sinatra Featuring Don Costa & His Orchestra Sinatra casts a backward glance at some of the highlights of a storied career. He also provides a glimpse into his musical future with an early rendition of "My Way," . Sinatra and Friends Guests include Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Loretta Lynn and John Denver,

The Concert For World Children's Day

Hosted by composer & arranger extraordinaire David Foster, the Concert for World Children's Day. Recorded at the Arie Crown Theater of the McCormick Place in Chicago, USA on September 14, 2002.

Buena Vista Social Club

In this fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary, American guitarist Ry Cooder brings together a group of legendary Cuban folk musicians (some in their 90s) to record a Grammy-winning CD in their native city of Havana. The result is a spectacular compilation of concert footage from the group's gigs in Amsterdam and New York City's famed Carnegie Hall, with director Wim Wenders capturing not only the music -- but also the musicians' life stories.

Supermalo

As the walls of Cuba's ageing infrastructure continue to crumble, a burgeoning street art scene is born in Havana. Murals of hand-painted masked character – Supermalo – with the tag “2+2=5?” have begun to appear in seemingly every corner of the heavily foot trafficked city.

Santeros

Merce

Teresita's Dream

Teresita's Dream follows the extraordinary story of Cuban scientist Teresita Rodríguez. When her mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Teresita embarks on a deeply personal and politically complex journey to find a treatment – joined by a team of mostly women scientists. What begins as an effort to help her mother, leads to a discovery that could change how the world treats this devastating disease forever.

Lost In Space Forever

Host John Larroquette takes viewers on a nostalgic trip through the 1965-1968 sci-fi comedy series. The disc's rare footage include Guy Williams's screen test, extended clips from the 1965 pilot, bloopers and the original clips CBS network sales presentation. Viewers also get to go behind the scenes of the 1998 big-screen version. To top it off, Billy Mumy (Will), Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith) and the robot reunite for a special tribute.

Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show

It had all the makings of a huge television success: a white-hot comic at the helm, a coveted primetime slot, and a pantheon of future comedy legends in the cast and crew. So why did The Dana Carvey Show—with a writers room and cast including then unknowns Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Louis C.K., Robert Smigel, Charlie Kaufman, and more— crash and burn so spectacularly? TOO FUNNY TO FAIL tells the hilarious true story of a crew of genius misfits who set out to make comedy history… and succeeded in a way they never intended.

I LIKE TO DREAM: The True Story of Felipe Cardeña

I Like to Dream: The True Story of Felipe Cardeña (Short film), shot by the artist Desiderio, shows us Felipe, as a mime walking through the streets of Havana, through the cross-over testimonies of many people who knew or heard of him: street mimes like him, but also bartenders, street vendors, street people, as well as the famous Cuban writer Yoss, author of an essay on the artist. A hybrid film, halfway between the journalistic documentary and the dreamlike and symbolic reconstruction of the work of Cardeña, the film reconstructs Felipe’s passage through the streets of Havana, through witnesses, but also through Felipe’s performances (such as the large floral poster, with Che’s face, still hanging in a street in Old Havana), the suggestions of his works, his dreamlike atmospheres and colors.

Mission Control Texas

"The Atheist Experience," produced in Austin, Texas, is the only atheist TV show in the United States. Every Sunday afternoon, two atheists debate callers for one hour, on camera. "Mission Control Texas" portrays the show, its protagonists, and the discussions between the hosts and callers. The debates between believers and skeptics are funny, touching, and shocking in turn, and they're interspersed with footage of the very public religious displays common in the state of Texas. The film is an intimate, concentrated, and entertaining insight into the culture wars, and is sure to provoke inspiration as well as frustration, no matter which side of the divide you fall on.

Cuba

Unedited film of rural shore Havana, Cuba. Footage includes scenes of the old stone buildings and lighthouse along the ocean, mountain landscapes, people fishing and boating. Shot by Metro Movie Club member Ed Diller.

8 Days: Two Faces of the Feast

The film chases a historical event when King Jungjo tried to replace hispersonal revenge on those who killed his father Sado, the Crown Prince, with agreat cause to build up a nation for its people, which eventually leads to remind the lessons of history that repeat permanently like a Mobius strip. The film seems to aim to introduce the uniqueness of Uigwe with a historical yet futuristic value as a World Heritage on the surface, but in fact, it pursues torestore audio-visually the immaterial thing that remains only as a record under the name of feast. Inside the device receiving images, there might have been desires to reproduce the world or to secularize the invisible from the beginning. Hungry TV will awaken the potential to visualize all the intangible via digitaltechnology. So to speak, there is digital technology, and it is followed by aquestion: How far the digital technology of 21st century would lead this deviceto?

Mari

Mari is a woman trapped in a man’s body. She tells us about life as a transsexual in Cuba and all the pain that comes with it: parental rejection, the men she’s loved who hurt her deeply, unscrupulous doctors… But she continues to fight, trying to make her life just a little better every day.