¿QuiÉn soy yo? (Who am I?)
2008, Argentina/Cuba, Dir. Estela Bravo. 73 min.

US-born filmmaker Estela Bravo’s acclaimed follow-up documentary to her 1984 Niños desaparecidos de Argentina (Missing Children). Again focusing on the search for abducted children during the military dictatorship in Argentina from 1976 to 1983, she spotlights 4 of the 500 children, now in their 30s, who were given to friends of soldiers who had tortured and killed their parents. Best documentary at the 2007 Havana Film Festival

El telÓn de azucar (The Sugar Curtain)
2005, Spain/Cuba/France, Dir. Camila Guzmán Urzúa. 90 min.

An intimate portrait of the Cuban Revolution—its jubilant promise and sobering reality—as seen through the eyes of director Camila Guzmán Urzúa (daughter of Patricio Guzmán, director of the epic La Batalla de Chile), raised within its midst during the ’70s and ’80s after her family was forced to leave Chile after the 1973 military coup.

Machuca
2004, Chile/Spain/UK/France, Dir. Andrés Wood. 121 min.

Machuca is a moving depiction of a difficult historical period — 1973 Chile,  on the verge of the military coup that deposed Salvador Allende — as seen – lived  -- through the eyes of three pre-adolescents from different social classes.

Voces InocentES (INNOCENT VOICES)
2004, Mexico/USA/Puerto Rico, Dir. Luis Mandoki. 120 min.

Forced by circumstances to become the “man of the house” after his father leaves to fight in the Salvadorian Civil War in the 1980s, 11 year-old Chava now faces another challenge: when he turns 12 he may be forced by the government to enlist in the army to fight against the FMLN (the Farabundo Martí front).  His life becomes a struggle to escape from bullets and the devastating effects of daily violence.

CUBANS ON THE EDGE: HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE 
Tales from and about contemporary Cuba about those who have left the island, those who have been left behind, and those that think and obsess about leaving.        

Habana: Arte nuevo de hacer ruinas(Havana: The New Art of Making Ruins)
2006, Germany/Cuba, Dir. Florian Borchmeyer. 86 min

A portrait of the inhabited ruins of Havana and their strange blend of magic and demolition. The film captures the final moments of these buildings (and their poignant inhabitants) before they’re renovated – or simply collapse altogether

Habana Blues (Havana Blues)
2005, Spain/Cuba/France, Dir. Benito Zambrano.  100 min.

Ruy and Tito have been playing together for years, waiting for a recording contract and international recognition and success. Their break comes when a Spanish music producer arrives in Cuba looking to sign new bands with the “Havana sound”. As the band come closer to realizing their dream, Ruy and the producer become romantically involved and things begin to fall apart. The prospect of a recording contract in Spain is tantalizing, but at a price; once they leave Cuba they can never return. 

The Man of Two Havanas
2007, USA, Dir. Vivian Lesnik Weisman. 93 min.

Filmmaker Vivien Lesnik Weisman's childhood was marred by bombings and death threats on her father, Max Lesnik, a former friend of Fidel Castro. In The Man of Two Havanas she explores her father’s involvement in the Revolution, his exile to Little Havana, Miami, and his eventual return to Cuba to help end the embargo. Using top-secret audiotapes, she also delves into the fascinating history of Cuban-American relations.

Personal Belongings
2006, Cuba, Dir. Alejandro Brugués. 95 min.

Ernesto lives life in a limbo of sorts, stuck somewhere between the promise of an exit visa and the fear of rotting away in Havana. But his smooth-talking schemes to secure papers are complicated when he crosses paths with Anita, and is faced with the only incentive to stay in Cuba—love. Screenwriter Alejandro Brugués makes his directorial debut with this poignant romance about the price of freedom, the power of sacrifice and the meaning of happiness.