Balseros (2002)

An Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, BALSEROS is the heartrending yet triumphant account of seven Cuban refugees--and their families--who risked their lives to venture towards America's shores on homemade rafts. The Village Voice raves that BALSEROS is an "engrossing documentary" with an "extraordinary sense of recording stories as they unfold!" While Presidents Clinton and Fidel Castro argued over the closing of Cuba's coast in the chaotic summer of 1994, nearly 50,000 "balseros" (a slang term for Cuban rafters) set out towards Florida, navigating the shark-infested waters on vessels made of wood, nails, and tar. The television reporting team of Carles Bosch and Josep M. Domènech began filming this remarkable story over those landmark 15 days. Then, as most of the rafters were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard, Bosch and Domènech continued to follow their lively cast of characters, some of whom were detained for more than a year at the Guantanamo naval base before finally being allowed onto American soil.

An Interesting Look

This was an interesting documentary about a brief period of time during the Clinton administration in which Cubans were so desperate to leave Cuba (either to reunite with family in the United States or to come to what they thought were cities of gold) that they risked their lives and took to the sea on flimsy rafts that I wouldn't get into a pool on. The film documented several people making their rafts, putting them out to see, being turned back to Cuba to be held at Guantanamo Bay, being given lottery tickets to come to the U.S. and then how they faired once they got here. It seemed, for many, to be a hard life they were leaving and a hard life they were coming to. The documentary doesn't focus much on the politics of what was going on at the time -- there are some brief mentions of Castro opening the flood gates and letting people leave if they wanted and Clinton turning people away for a brief time, but most of the film discusses the hopes and dreams of people thinking there was a better way of life out there and how desperate they were to get to it.

An interesting film and worth watching for some perspective. March 7, 2008

One of the best documentaries on migration

The movie documents the lives of half a dozen Cubans as they struggle to escape their wretched lives to reach the land of dreams. Seen in a braoder context, I could immediately relate to the hopes and aspirations of people in various corners of the third world as they seek to make a home in the West.
Most interesting was to note how fragile human relationships are - majority of these 6 Cubans who finally make it to America find loving and living with people against all promises made to loved ones when departing. Since this documentary tracks the lives of these people across several years, it provides a rich historical context to measure the reality against the dreams that these immigrants had when departing for America.
Thankfully, the movie stays away from any political overtones (as in Castro-bashing, or America/ CIA bashing). June 18, 2007

It is the exeption, not the rule, bad example

The documentary is one of the few that Fidel Castro will allow to show on the communist Cuban television. It shows the negative side of the balseros immigrants. Completely pessimist and intentional depressing and some times it make fun about Cubans. No a good example. The director picked a very poor town were everybody is black and unlettered. The other ninety percent of the rafter or Balseros, not showed on this documentary of course, are mostly white, blue collar worker, professionals, and artists. I see then all the time. Why this documentary doesn't show to the world that Cuban is the minority more represented on the highest levels of the united stated government. Balseros that came here to work hard, learn the language, make money without selling drugs. It is the type of material that makes happy those that use to ware Che Gevara tee-shirt. I am sorry about my English, I am just a Balsero that came here eight years ago and now I am American citizen, own a hause, have my own insurance business and most at all, I am free and proud to be a cuban balsero. May 18, 2006

Shockingly great access, footage and narrative

"Balseros" is movie of deep commitment executed by a team of heavily talented reporters and film professionals. The work effort covers a period of almost eight years, starting with the so-called "Balseros" crisis of 1994, when - in shades of the Mariel Boatlift in 1980 - a policy shift by Fidel's government sends thousands of industrious Cubans streaming towards the shores of Florida.

The access the film team has to the island is unprecedented. You see the rafts being crafted and carried through the streets. When protagonist Guillermo Armas rides to the shore with this raft, he's cordoned by a wave of joyous bicyclists. What an amazing scene. In the meantime, the camera captures the seedy and rundown nature of present-day Havana.

Where "Balseros" stands apart is in carrying the film through to 2001, when we see what has become of the seven protagonists. You have to give immense credit to co-directors and writers Carles Bosch & Josep Domènech for the effort and skill in putting together this tale.

And, in a film with standout moments, here's mine: the team takes to the waters to document the journeys. At times, it encounters hauntingly empty rafts. The voice over gently tells you about the implications of an empty raft. All you have to do is juxtapose the flimsiness of some of these vessels vs. the raging currents in the straits and it's not difficult to imagine how these journeys came to a ghostly end.

Good complements to "Balseros" are "Finding Mañana" Mirta Ojito's outstanding 2005 memoir of the the Mariel Boatlift, Reinaldo Arenas' "Before Night Falls" (acclaimed author Arenas also came over in Mariel) and "Azucar Amarga," another great film with outstanding live footage (spliced into a compelling fictional story).

The movie follows seven specific protagonists. I found it hard to distinguish the threads at times, but Spanish producer Bausan Films has an outstanding press package on its web site and it contains a little cheat sheet of the seven, which I'm pasting in here because I think it'll really help your watching of the film:

MÉRICYS GONZALEZ
HER JOURNEY
AUGUST 1994
Builds a raft in Havana
SEPTEMBER 1994
She sets off to sea. The raft is wrecked and she returns to Cuba
FIVE YEARS LATER 2001
She obtains a legal visa and goes to Albuquerque, New Mexico to join her sister

OSCAR DEL VALLE
HIS JOURNEY
AUGUST 1994
Builds a raft in Havana
SEPTEMBER 1994
Goes to sea and in U.S. waters is picked up and sent to the naval base at Guantanamo
OCTOBER/DECEMBER 1995
Accepted in the U.S.A. he is sent to the Bronx
FIVE YEARS LATER 2001
He has moved to York (Pennsylvania)

RAFAEL CANO
HIS JOURNEY
AUGUST 1994
Builds a raft and is thrown out of it
SEPTEMBER 1994
In a "new" raft he sets out to sea and is detained in U.S. waters. He is taken to Guantanamo
OCTOBER/DECEMBER 1995
Accepted into the U.S. he is sent to Miami
JUNE 1996
He goes to Nebraska
FIVE YEARS LATER 2001
The TV program broadcast nationally from Miami, Gran Impacto, sets out to find him

MÍRIAM HERNÁNDEZ
HER JOURNEY
AUGUST 1994
Builds a raft in Batabanó (in southern Cuba)
SEPTEMBER 1994
She sets out to sea and is detained in U.S. waters and sent to the naval base in Guantanamo
OCTOBER/DECEMBER 1995
Accepted in the U.S. she is sent to Miami
FIVE YEARS LATER 2001
She is still waiting for her daughter, who is now eight years old, and who Miriam still has not been able to bring from Cuba

GUILLERMO ARMAS
HIS JOURNEY
AUGUST 1994
Builds a raft in Havana
SEPTEMBER 1994
Sets out to sea and is detained in U.S. waters and sent to the naval base at Guantanamo
MAY 1995
Accepted in the U.S. he is sent to Miami
FIVE YEARS LATER 2001
He lives with his wife and daughter in Miami

JUAN CARLOS AND MISCLAIDA
THEIR JOURNEYS
AUGUST 1994
They build a raft in Havana
SEPTEMBER 1994
They set out to sea and are detained in U.S. waters and sent to the naval base at Guantanamo
OCTOBER/DECEMBER 1995
Accepted in the U.S. they are sent to Granby, Connecticut
FIVE YEARS LATER 2001
They have separated. He lives in Granby. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. September 13, 2005

Understanding Cuba!

An excellent account of how cubans escaped communist Cuba in 1994 building rafts and sailing across to their dream of America.
It follows the lives for 5 people who made the crossing. The film follows their struggle on arriving in America and looks at their lives 6 years on.
This is a True Story which is still happening today.
The film is in Spanish but there are subtitles.
Get the hankies ready!
September 5, 2005

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