The development of HipHop culture in Cuba and how rap has become the primary art form by which Cuban youth make their voices heard and express their frustrations with life in Cuba.
Synopsis:
Major media attention has been given to Cuba’s version of Hip Hop culture—a culture originally developed in the Bronx, New York during the late 1970’s as a vehicle of expression for disenfranchised youth. Serving the same purpose within socialist Cuban society, Cuban Hip Hop is defying numerous misconceptions about censorship in Cuba (via its highly critical lyrics), while at the same time reaffirming certain limitations that Cuban society faces under Castro’s regime (i.e. the lack of commercial success for artists). International attention to Cuban Hip Hop grew after the first annual Cuban Rap Festival, held in 1995. However, this
film indicates that the foundation for the growth of Hip Hop in Cuba was set in the 1970’s, contemporaneously with the US. Based on a first-hand investigation
carried out over the course of four years, including participation in Cuban Hip
Hop concerts and colloquiums at the eighth annual Cuban Hip Hop Festival in
Havana, and interviews with the most influential Cuban Hip Hop artists and
producers, this documentary traces the development of Cuban Hip Hop step by
step in a way that has yet to be formally recorded or published.
Larissa and Vanessa Díaz
Larissa and Vanessa Díaz are a Puerto Rican-Italian sister film-making team from Riverside, California. Larissa is a fourth year Film and Visual Culture major, with an emphasis on documentary films, at the University of California, Riverside.
She currently edits programming for a local church. A former teacher’s assistant at Riverside Community College, where she helped teach television and news production classes as well as directed and produced several shows for RCC-TV, Larissa does freelance editing and photography.
Her younger sister Vanessa graduated from New York University in May with a degree in Latin American Studies and Politics and a minor in journalism. Vanessa is currently a public relations representative for the University of California, Los Angeles, and a reporter for People Magazine. As an MC and poet, Vanessa has recorded a CD and been an invited guest performer at Julliard, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, and various high schools. In 2002, Vanessa received the Holmes Travel Scholarship to do research on Cuban HipHop and spent two months in Havana researching the history of this unique movement. That year, Vanessa was the only international female artist to perform at the 8th annual Cuban HipHop festival in Havana, allowing her to create a close bond with the Cuban HipHop artists with whom she worked. Following her trip, Larissa
and Vanessa created a short documentary called “Cuban HipHop: A Contemporary
Example of Transculturation.” The short film was screened at NYU’s annual
Social Justice Forum, NYU’s Dean’s Undergraduate Research Conference, and
various colleges and high schools in California and New York. During the summer of 2004, Vanessa traveled to Vietnam as part of a documentary film-making crew and then back to Cuba to shoot the footage necessary for her and Larissa to complete “Cuban HipHop: Desde el Principio”. This is the first feature length film for the
sisters.
