Miami, June 12, 2024 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Miami Film Festival continues its successful Cuban Cinema Series with a tribute to the late director Sergio Giral. During the tribute, taking place Friday, June 21, at 7 p.m. at MDC’s Koubek Center theater in Little Havana, there will be a free screening of his feature film María Antonia (1990). The movie will be in Spanish with English subtitles.
The film’s screenwriter and Giral’s closest collaborator, Armando Dorrego, actor/playwright Alexis Valdés, the film’s protagonist and actress Micheline Calvert, among other cast members, will attend the tribute and participate in a Q & A after. This new presentation of the Cuban Film Series, led by film critic Alejandro Ríos, is sponsored by ArtesMiami and supported by the Apogeo Foundation.
Based on a play of the same name by Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, María Antonia was the last film Giral made in Cuba before moving to Miami. It features a stellar performance by Alina Rodríguez, who plays a young woman who challenges her religious beliefs and lets herself be carried away by unbridled passion and rebellion. Maria Antonia was nominated for a Goya Award and premiered at the Miami Film Festival in 1991 when Giral relocated to the United States.
Giral’s work is valuable in anthropological and aesthetic terms. Films such as El Otro Francisco (1974), Rancheador (1976), Maluala (1979), and Plácido (1986) accentuate the presence of African culture in Cuba. His film Techo de Vidrio (1980), a brave exploration of corruption in the Cuban dictatorship, was banned by censorship for eight years.
The screening is free with registration. Reserve your tickets at https://miamifilmfestival.com/cuban-cinema-series.
Free parking is available at the Koubek Center.
WHAT: Cuban Cinema Series Pays Tribute to Sergio Giral
WHEN: Friday, June 21, at 7 p.m.
WHERE: MDC’s Koubek Center, 2705 S.W. 3rd St.