Time to submit my film, 'Nowhere Man' to another fine film festival in the Pacific Northwest. So far it has been submitted to Las Vegas International Film Festival, DocUtah, and the Port Townsend Film Festival where I was invited to enter and my entry fee was waived. Thank you, Janette Force of the selection committee for your very kind offer!
Am using the Without a Box site for submission and have had to do write two synopsises of my film a short version and a longer one. Both follow f.y.i.
NOWHERE MAN was filmed on location in Old Havana, Cuba during the summer of 2010. This eleven minute documentary chronicles the plight of a balsero (or raft person) from the Mariel Boat Lift in the early 80s and how he successfully escaped the oppressive communist Castro regime on an inner tube raft on the Florida Strait in eight hours only to find himself deported back to Havana twenty years later older but perhaps no wiser. We follow Roberto during a typical day as a street hustler preying upon tourists in Vieje Habana as he struggles too supplement his meager income acting as a tour guide as well as attempting to plot his way of of Cuba once more. The next time for good..
NOWHERE MAN is a revealing documentary on life for that rare Cuban phenomenon, an emigre (Roberto) who has returned home after living for over 20 years in the United States in various cities. The film follows Roberto through the streets of Old Havana in his not-so-secret life as an unofficial guide and general procurer of goods and services for foreign visitors. Already on parole for hassling tourists, the film shadows Roberto as he attempts to fly under the radar of the vigilance of state police and the ever present security cameras in his constant search to make a fast buck to supplement his meager government salary and ration book. Robert's narrative gradually peels back his personal history, exposing his encounters with the law, both in Cuba and in the U.S.A. that have lead him to his current predicament. Caught between his capitalist aspirations and his current socialist reality, Roberto is struggling to survive in his birthplace while attempting to find a way; any way to return to the adopted country that rejected him. Roberto's candour in front of the camera challenges our perception of him. Is he a consummate hustler or a victim of circumstances, or both?
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