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Cuban-American director
risks punishment for movie
Daytona
Beach News-Journal.
Associated Press, May 31, 2006.
HAVANA -- Cuban-American filmmaker Luis
Moro expressed his disdain for the long-standing
U.S. trade and travel restrictions against
Cuba in a very public way: he made a movie
there.
Moro's "Love and Suicide" was
showing until Thursday in East New York,
New Jersey, after screenings last year in
Los Angeles, Miami Beach and the Bahamas.
It's linked to a personal crusade against
the U.S. embargo and it led U.S. officials
to investigate Moro for possible violation
of U.S. laws that make it almost impossible
for most Americans to legally visit communist
Cuba.
If officials act against him, Moro says
he will refuse to pay any fines, even if
it means jail time.
"It's a farce -- the embargo has not
worked, and it is not going to work,"
Moro said of the policy imposed since the
early 1960s. "I'm committed to fighting
this to the end."
Moro, who left Cuba with his mother at
the age of 5, says his campaign doesn't
mean he favors the Cuban government or its
leader Fidel Castro.
"I'm not pro-Castro. I'm anti-embargo,"
he said by telephone from Los Angeles.
A writer, actor and producer, Moro attended
a film festival in Havana in December 2003
and took the opportunity to shoot "Love
and Suicide," which was filmed by director
Lisa France with a small digital camera.
Days after the movie was shown at the American
Black Film Festival in Miami Beach in July,
the U.S. Treasury Department notified Moro
his trip to Cuba was being investigated.
Moro said he refused the department's request
for details about his travels, saying he
has the right to travel freely.
The department can impose fines of up to
$65,000 for Americans traveling to Cuba
without a special license. Typical fines
for first-time violators are about $7,500,
Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said.
While U.S. law let Cuban-Americans like
Moro visit the island without a special
permit until 2004, it authorized family
visits -- not filmmaking.
Millerwise declined to comment on Moro,
saying policy doesn't allow discussion of
individual cases.
Moro said ordinary Cubans on the island
suffer most from the sanctions, which were
tightened in 2004. The number of U.S. visitors,
including those of Cuban origin, slipped
to about 108,000 last year from about 200,000
in 2003, according to a Cuban government
report, which did not say how many were
considered legal by U.S. authorities.
The strongest backers of the embargo have
been Cubans who fled the country after the
Castro-led revolution came to power in 1959,
often losing their property. Moro says it's
time to move on.
The exiles "will never get their land
back," he said. "Just like the
Seminole Indians won't get Florida back,
and Texas won't be returned to Mexico."
"How many generations, how many families,
have been ruined because of personal vendettas?"
he asked.
The themes of forgiveness and moving beyond
bitterness pepper "Love and Suicide."
Kamar de los Reyes plays a New Yorker on
the verge of killing himself when he travels
to Cuba and confronts his roots.
A Cuban taxi driver, played by Moro, shows
him the city, helping him find love and
some inner peace.
The movie shows sweeping vistas of the
Cuban capital -- the famous Malecon seawall,
bustling tourist markets, the winding, picturesque
streets of the old city -- some with a personal
touch.
When de los Reyes'character visits his
father's crumbling home in central Havana,
it really is the former house of the actor's
Cuban father.
Moro says that if "Love and Suicide"
is shown in upcoming Havana film festivals,
he'll be back.
Without a U.S. license.
On the Web:
http://www.morofilms.com
http://www.thecubanevolution.com
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