The Culdee Arts Reel Entertainment (CARE) Awards in Cairo, West Virginia has just announced that Cuba, Libre? is an Official Selection.
That marks the fifty-second time since its January, 2016 release that the film has been chosen by a film festival.
Cuba, Libre? has been named a Finalist in the competition for the “Best Documentary” award at this year’s Chicago Amarcord Arthouse Television Awards.
Here’s how the festival describes itself:
“The AMARCORD ARTHOUSE TELEVISION AWARDS (AATVA) is a web-only competition with the focus on arthouse films made primarily for television and video. The event has no screening.
“AATVA is a division of the Blow-up Arthouse Film festival. It links the most creative artists together with very intelligent audiences for its annual festival of narrative, musical and documentary films, shorts, animations, experimental films, and student work. The Festival was named after the Fellini’s iconic film “Amarcord”.
“The event pursues goals to introduce more people to the arthouse film. We would like to see films made primarily for aesthetic and philosophical reasons.
“We believe that a story driven by a genuine expression can stimulate new thoughts that have the power to promote the fundamental principles of humanism, expand creative frontiers, stimulate new levels of compassion, and even lead to social change.
“The Festival is an organization dedicated to the discovery and development of new artists and audiences. The Festival seeks to support and inspire independent film and theatre artists from the United States and around the world, and to introduce audiences to their new work.
“We also welcome established Arthouse filmmakers, who already attained a major contribution to the art of filmmaking.”
Although Cuba, Libre? has been in 51 film festivals to-date, today marked the first time that a festival director has taken the initiative to request that the film be submitted to his festival.
Here’s the e-mail Producer/Director, Dick Jordan, received from Frank Leczner, Jr., the Director of the Erie International Film Festival:
“I am contacting you today because your film “Cuba, Libre?” has been brought to my attention as an incredible work of filmmaking.
“… I am impressed with the quality of filmmaking and level of excellence that you have invested into the project as an artisan of film, and I feel that it would be a phenomenal addition to our 2019 program.
“To that end, and with complete respect and admiration for your craft as a Filmmaker, I would like to cordially invite you to both submit your film to our Festival, and for it to participate in our 2019 event.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“I genuinely hope that you will accept my offer and allow us the very remarkable and exciting opportunity of presenting your film in our Festival this year.”
Cuba, Libre? will be screened this coming weekend at the Clifton Film Celebration in Clifton, Virginia, about 30 miles and a 45 minute or less drive west of Washington, D.C.
The film and two other documentaries will be shown between 9:00 a.m. and noon on Sunday, November 10th, the final day of the three day film festival. It is in the running for the “Best Feature Documentary” award.
Here’s the complete schedule for the film screenings and events.
Festival passes are available for the entire Friday-Sunday festival ($25), or just for Saturday ($10) or Sunday ($10) through FilmFreeway.com.
The films will be shown at the Clifton Town Hall, 12641 Chapel Road, Clifton, VA 20124.
Cuba, Libre? has been nominated for a film festival “Best Documentary” award for the 10th time since its release in January of 2016. The latest nomination came at this weekend’s Urban Film Festival in Miami.
Some film festivals want a very short trailer to use, particularly at award ceremonies. Here’s one just produced for Cuba, Libre?
Many thanks to those who cast a vote in favor of Cuba, Libre? in the 2019 Great Lakes International Film Festival’s “Audience Choice Award” competition.
The official voting tally hasn’t been released, but according to the reckoning by filmmaker, Dick Jordan, Cuba, Libre? finished first in the voting among 150 films submitted in the “Documentary Feature” category.
One interesting outcome of the voting: None of the three films which festival judges nominated for “Best Documentary Feature” received even a single vote in the “Audience Choice Award” competition.
If the festival gave out “Audience Choice Awards” in each of the 18 categories of films, Cuba, Libre? would be a winner.
However, it appears that the “Audience Choice Award” will go only to the top vote-getter across all categories, with the next three films in the overall voting receiving recognition from the festival.
Cuba, Libre? appears to have finished in the number nine spot overall, which is still rather remarkable since (if one counts all films listed in each category, which could include some that were entered in more than one category) the list of films in the festival appears to have topped 2,700.
Cuba, Libre? currently is in third place in voting for an Audience Choice Award at the 2019 Great Lakes International Film Festival. Voting ends at midnight EDT (9:00 pm PDT) today, Saturday, September 28th.
“Cuba, Libre?” is currently trailing the leading film for the award by just 11 votes.
As of today Cuba, Libre? has been shown on over 60 non-commercial TV stations across the U.S., has been in 48 film festivals, won 17 awards, as well as having been shown at public and private screenings in Oregon and California.
Usually you would have to travel to a film festival to see the film. But between now and September 28th you can watch it online by “attending” the Great Lakes International Film Festival “Virtual Festival.”
Just visit the “Cuba, Libre?” page on the GLIFF Website to view the trailer and then click on the “Click Here to Watch Now” button near the bottom of the page, pay the $1.99 online ticket fee, and play the entire 56 minute film on your computer, tablet or smartphone.
Cuba, Libre? Film 