Cuba brought into sharp focus

Not a ground breaking documentary so much as it is a compassionate and insightful one.

David Bradbury, who has made some significant documentaries over the years like Frontline, Nicaragua: No Pasaran, Chile: Hasta Cuando, went on a quest to Cuba funded by and on behalf of committed socialist and millionaire Jim Mitsos. His task: to report on film on the success of Cuba?s socialist dream under Castro. Bradbury discovers that the music is still there ? and those wonderful rhythms run through the film, and so is the passion, but so also is disillusionment, economic chaos and censorship. A lot of what Jim Mitsos wanted to know about Cuba was already known: the economic burdens created by the embargo, the paranoia well-founded on attempts by the west to undermine this communist country that\'s just a touch too close to the United States, the evils that come from long-term entrenched power. Bradbury brings all these elements into focus through the people he meets on his odyssey, using historical footage of Castro, Guevara and the times of Baptista. Fond Memories of Cuba is not a ground breaking documentary so much as it is a compassionate and insightful one.