Miami, April 22, 2016 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Tower Theater will showcase the U.S. commercial release of the acclaimed Cuban-Irish film Viva and the Miami premiere of the Cuban film Off Beat (A contratiempo) Friday and Saturday, April 29 – 30. The first screening of VIVA will be presented by the film’s leading actors, Hector Medina and Luis Alberto García, at 7 p.m. Friday, April 29. There will be a Q & A session with both actors.
VIVA is an emotion-charged drama that uncovers an authentic Cuba. Directed by Irish filmmaker Paddy Breathnach and Academy Award-winner Benicio Del Toro as its executive producer, the film centers on Jesus, a make-up artist for a troupe of drag performers in Havana who dreams of being a performer. He finally gets his big chance to take the stage, but a stranger emerges from the crowd and punches him in the face. The stranger turns out to be his father, a former boxer who has been absent from his life for 15 years. As father and son clash over their opposing expectations of each other, VIVA becomes a love story where the two men struggle to understand one another and become a family again.
VIVA was presented at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival and the 2015 Havana Film Festival. The film was shot in Havana, Cuba.
Cuba has always been recognized worldwide as a hotbed for musical productions, especially traditional music, including son, rumba, boleros, and more. During the 1960’s and 70’s, there was also a strong movement towards rock n’ roll, a genre that was sweeping the world. Cuban rockers faced a big challenge – the government considered rock music a weapon of the enemy, therefore a danger to the youth. Off Beat tells the untold stories of underground rock musicians in Havana in the 60s and 70s. Directed by Jorge Soliño, the film features that era’s most important Cuban rock bands: Los Pacíficos, Sesiones ocultas, Los Kents, and Las almas vertiginosas, among others.
There will be an after party following the screening of Off Beat at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 30, with some of the featured musicians at HABANA 305, located at 2007 S.W. 8 St.
Attendees can enjoy 50% off (cover and drinks) with their Tower Theater ticket stub.
Tickets are $11.50 for general admission, $9 for seniors, students and MDC staff and $7 for MDC students, Tower Theater and Miami Film Society members.
For more information, please call the Tower Theater at 305-237-2463, or visit www.towertheatermiami.com.