Guerrilla Radio: The Hip-Hop Struggle Under Castro (FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY)

(THIS FILM IS FOR EDUCATIONAL USE ONLY)
About Guerrilla Radio: The Hip-Hop Struggle Under Castro
Journey through a Cuba that few Americans know exists. Hundreds of hip-hop groups are forming across the island, inspired entirely by love of the music. Unlike hip-hop in the United States, there's no promise of a better life if Cuban rappers produce a hit.
They work against a stark backdrop of prostitution, black-market capitalism and poverty, in part because the typical Cuban makes only $15 a month. Complicating matters is a police force that tosses the rappers in jail if their songs criticize Fidel Castro or his communist government.
Even if you don't care for hip-hop, you will be fascinated by the struggle of the Cuban people and what they’re doing to survive.
The Buena Vista Social Club was the music of Cuba’s past; Guerrilla Radio is the music of Cuba's future.
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Thomas Nybo and Simon Umlauf worked together at
CNN (Thomas was a reporter; Simon was an entertainment
producer) and they frequently found themselves
discussing music. When a late-night talk turned to the
world of documentary film, and what stories weren't
being told, the plight of Cuban hip-hop artists
surfaced. Nybo had travelled extensively throughout
Latin America and spoke Spanish, and Umlauf had
written an article for CNN.com about the emerging
Cuban hip-hop scene, so they decided to form a
partnership and produce a documentary film about the
struggling Cuban musicians. The result is "Guerrilla
Radio: The Hip-Hop Struggle Under Castro."
Before travelling to Cuba, though, the filmmakers
needed permission from the U.S. government, which has
a law on the books called the "Trading with the Enemy
Act," which restricts trade with countries deemed
hostile to the United States.
"You have to go through a pretty thorough screening
process, submitting your resume establishing that you
are a professional journalist, along with a shooting
schedule, story outline and several other forms that
probably put a red flag by your name in some deep,
dark computer database somewhere in the Pentagon,"
says Umlauf.
A month and a half later their permission arrived,
and they took a charter flight from Miami to Havana.
They were joined by associate producer Indra Sibal,
another colleague from CNN. The team quickly navigated
through the underground Havana music scene in search
of subjects for the film.
"We arrived during Havana's annual hip-hop festival,"
Nybo says. "It was all very grassroots and low-key,
even for the country's top acts. The groups were all
selling self-produced CDs out on the streets, so we
bought copies of everything we could get our hands on.
After listening to the CDs, we picked our favorite
artists and asked them whether they wanted to be a
part of the film. Nobody turned us down."