Festival Embodiment of Free Speech

On Saturday young Cuban filmmaker Ian Padron wept at the sight of his long-censored documentary screened for the first time in an actual theater before a live audience.  Five years of censorship in Cuba has driven his film about Cuban baseball Los Industrialistas de La Habana (Dreaming in Blue) to such a prized pirated status that it was finally allowed for show to a foreign audience outside of Cuba.  It was hard for the Traverse City Film Festival audience to even fathom the constraints on artistic and public expression in the panel that followed the showing.  One of four Cuban filmmakers at the festival as part of a vibrant cultural exchange, Ian Padron embodies the struggle for freedom of expression and the triumph of peace and love over international politics.  A poignant moment met with a standing ovation.  The audience clapped for as long as he needed to compose himself and then some more.  A moment of deep connection between Cubans and Americans.  Bit by bit relations between our countries will normalize, the embargo wall will come down as more Americans understand that it no longer makes any sense for anybody.  As one young man said in Sunday's documentary showing of 11/4/08 chronicling around the world the day that the U.S. elected its first black president, "things are getting better."