why can't we have a candy corn background?
Part two of my music documentary mini-festival the other night was East of Havana, a look at the Cuban rap scene. Specifically the underground scene centered in the eastern part of Havana, and the 3 rappers in "el Cartel" who work outside of the official state sanctioned rap industry. I thought it did pretty well at showing a slice of life that most people would otherwise not get a chance to see. Altho it got (for me) overly manipulative at points, particularly in the segments with the brother who had escaped in the 1990s and was now living in the US, I thought the film-makers did a good job of taking its tone from its three central figures: Soandry, Magyori, and Mikki Flow. One thing I noticed, having watched this right after Crossing the Bridge is that both movies include a scene where an older male relative of one of the rappers talks about how he's come to enjoy and appreciate hiphop. I should also mention that, from what I can tell, most all commentary online about East of Havana is useless and absolutely unable to transcend whatever opinion the writer has about US policy towards Cuba. Not surprising, perhaps, but still somewhat frustrating.