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Sin Ti

Brown University MacMillan Hall
Providence, RI

Sin Ti/Without You
Louis M. Rivera, USA, Color, DV, 2002, 35'

For Cuban-Americans, Cuba is not Teddy Roosevelt charging up San Juan Hill or Fidel and Raul Castro ranting about Yankee Imperialism. The island is not a hedonistic tourist playground for easy women and slick men nor the birthplace of the Mojito or hip-shaking dance. For most Cuban-Americans, Cuba is a bittersweet dream of lost memories and buried family treasures. In the film, a kid asks his grandfather: "Hablame de tu tierra natal." ("Tell me about the place where you were born"). Abuelo Teodoro, the 70-year old Rivera patriarch, begins to recount his humble childhood in rural Cuba at the turn of the century. For the next 20 plus years, their conversations and the detailed descriptions of places and experiences foster a nostalgic sentimentality for a paradise lost. In 1999, with his Leica camera in one hand and a digital video camera in the other, the filmmaker embarks on a photo-journalistic expedition into this forbidden place in search of buried treasures in the Cuban countryside of Pinar del Rio.
"Sin Ti" ("Without You") is a short documentary film, the obra prima by this self-taught filmmaker and Brown University graduate, Louis M. Rivera, that relates his stirring journey to understand himself as it relates to his family's legacy and their country.
Louis Rivera, nacido en New Jersey, primera generacin Norteamericana de inmigrantes Cubanos, visita la isla tratando de reunir a toda la familia llevando consigo videos con mensajes, viejas fotos y memorias. Este documental, tan interesante como movilizador, no solamente nos da la oportunidad de ver como es Cuba, sino que revela secretos muy bien guardados por su abuela Cora. Un secreto, que de alguna u otra manera, tiene todo inmigrante porque cuando se empieza una nueva vida en un pas totalmente diferente, no solamente dejamos nuestra tierra natal atrs, sino que dejamos tambin nuestro pasado. As lo hizo la abuela Cora. Tomando por sorpresa a Louis en Cuba.

Director - Louis M. Rivera * Producer - Louis M. Rivera * Cinematographer - Louis M. Rivera * Editor - Louis M. Rivera * Cast - Abuela Cora and other family members both in Cuba and USA.

Kid Friendly: No

Dog Friendly: No

Non-Smoking: No

Wheelchair Accessible: No

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