Today, we invite three women writers to talk about Cuba’s role in newly released films. Our portal to the Cuban psyche is the 35^th Miami Film Festival that brings diverse cultural perspectives to the big screen in theaters across Miami, Florida. Sharing their expertise and personal knowledge of Cuba’s socio-political landscape are two sisters born in Miami, to Cuban parents: writer and filmmaker Carmen Peláez and food writer Ana Sofia Peláez. New York based journalist and filmmaker Michelle Memran joins us to remember her own encounters with the culture while making a documentary film with Cuban American playwright María Irene Fornés.

In this conversation, we consider the value of creativity, resilience, family and friendship in Cuba. The country’s historic relationship and chaotic rupture with the Soviet Union is the backdrop for the three stories we introduce. (The 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union catapulted Cuba into a life-changing economic crisis from which Cubans around the world are still recovering.) The films: Cuban Food Stories, director Asori Soto; The Rest I Make Up, director Michelle Memran; and Sergio and Sergai, director Ernesto Daranas.

Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio | Featured Sound Tracks courtesy of Miami Film Festival: Cuban Food Stories, The Rest I Make Up, Sergio and Sergai

Related Links: 35^th Miami Film Festival, Carmen Peláez, Ana Sofia Peláez, Michelle Memran, María Irene Fornés, Cuban Food Stories, Asori Soto, The Rest I Make Up, Michelle Memran, Sergio and Sergai, Ernesto Daranas