[Marxism] Granma review of Vivien Lesnik's documentary "The Man of Two Havanas"

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Miami-based Lesnik, who has known Fidel Castro since they were at the
University of Havana in the 1940s, and where Lesnik had been a leader
of the Ortodoxo Party youth, was present for the showing as was his
daughter. The film explains that Lesnik's central priority is his
activism in support of Cuban sovereignty and independence. He left
Cuba early on because he opposed the island's alliance with the
Soviet Union and is not a Marxist. He also was shocked by and was
opposed to the use of the death penalty in Cuba.

Yet his stubborn support for the island's complete independence 
makes him someone whose work in Miami, where he had been threatened 
with death and his offices repeatedly bombed, has made Lesnik a very 
much admired figure here in Cuba. The film also follows the director's
personal evolution from a child who had no understanding of why her
father followed the course he did, to one who has an understanding 
and today takes a stand on at least some of the same issues he does.

Among those who came out for the presentation were National Assembly
President Ricardo Alarcon, as well as various people in the media
here like Reinaldo Taladrid, and even Naty Revuelta, the mother of
one of Fidel's children - Alina Fernandez - and who is interviewed in
English in the movie.

People here in Cuba take off of work or schedule their work around the
festival if they're so inclined. Some theaters are packed, others are
not, but the tickets are the same as always, two regular Cuban pesos,
or the equivalent of eight or nine U.S. pennies per ticket.

The festival's schedule is well-maintained on a website and is regularly
updated here each day. http://www.habanafilmfestival.com

Walter Lippmann
Havana, Cuba
======================================================================

GRANMA
December 13, 2007

The Man of Two Havanas

ROLANDO PEREZ BETANCOURT
rolando.pb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


The documentary The Man of Two Havanas goes beyond the tribute of a
daughter to her father and becomes a story of discoveries.

The human, political and socially significant film is marked from the
beginning by the acute sincerity of the director, who from the onset
confesses having not been an admirer of the revolution in her birth
country that she left as a small girl. And even more so, when she
says it is an island that had never been important to her.

Vivian Lesnik, historian and journalist, with a solid cinematographic
background, became involved in the history of her father, Max, as the
best way to offer an integral portrait of a man she had admired
without having understood his political passion. The film presents
Max Lesnik as a man who put his life at risk on several occasions,
first against the Batista dictatorship and later facing the fascist
tactics of rightwing Cuban groups based in Miami.

At one point in the documentary the director asks "Why take such
risks -which marked her life- Why the insistence on the struggle? To
give the audience an explanation, Vivian first delves into the
history of Cuba in which a host of events and personalities are shown
including her father, president of the Orthodox Youth, student leader
and friend of Fidel Castro and many revolutionaries. She follows her
father on his path to exile in the 1960s due to his opposition to
Cuba's rapprochement with the Soviet Union, "I was one of those who
said the Revolution should not ally itself with Washington or with
the Soviet Union," said Max Lesnik who later would call that stance
idealistic. But that's how he felt at the age of 30.

The history of Lesnik in the United States is a long record in favor
of just causes of the Cuban people. He has defended the Cuban cause
in newspapers and in the Replica magazine and today via the
microphones of Radio Miami, which he manages. The documentary listens
in on a couple hostile calls to the station accusing him of being a
Cuban spy and a communist, resulting from his firm position against
the US blockade and his ongoing battle with the Miami-based,
Cuban-born terrorists that the US government harbors with impunity.

It would take a good while to describe all the themes touched on by
the film and discuss some of the opinions that spark debate pro and
contra. It is a multifaceted film, lucid in structure and in the
passion to unravel.

The director searches for her father at the places of his activist
youth in Havana (at the university and the offices of the Orthodox
Party) and in Little Havana in Miami, where we see him in street
protests against the anti-Cuban measures of the Bush administration.
Vivian interviews her mother and other family members, searching for
clues as to her father's motivation. She mingles with people in
Havana asking about their lives, their difficulties and joys.

In one scene Vivian takes part in a ceremony recalling the 73 Cubans
who died in the plane sabotage back in 1976. She shows her
indignation that an assassin like Luis Posada Carriles is not in
prison. Watching her father at the University of Havana she also
discovers that each time he returns to Cuba it seems like he never
left.

As the documentary moves on, Vivian, who began as a curious observer,
delves deep into the mysteries of the commitment of her father, which
distanced him from her, making her childhood more challenging. Near
the end of the documentary, she says she finally understands and a
footage is shown of her on the streets of Miami, passionately
demonstrating in favor of Cuba's sovereignty.

The Man of the Two Havanas is a political history, but also a very
human story that goes beyond the love of a daughter for her father.


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism