POLITRICKS

Guerrilla Filmmaker Has Hope in Obama

"Can the United States be any more Communistic?" barks the burly man rockin' a Rutgers cap outside a Hollywood post office. This is independent filmmaker Luis Moro. He's been called everything from a fucking bastard Communist to a global hero and he is crazy angry. Moro shot a feature film in Cuba without Castro's approval, without U.S government approval, and he just learned he can't mail his Cuban cousin a package of socks. "I finally did what no one else has done, what no one could do. And the government, well they're stumped. In Hollywood they say 'you did what?'"

Look on IMDB and you'll find any narrative feature made in Cuba is a co-production with another country, approved by Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematográficos. Not Moro's "Love and Suicide" which screened in Miami and Los Angeles. The flick, which eluded critical acclaim, remains an introspective look at how Americans are regarded in Castro's Cuba. In it Moro plays the roll of a cabbie who befriends-and makes money off- a suicidal American visitor.

After pulling off his cinematic coupe Moro has been called on the carpet by the Feds for violating trade sanctions but citing his constitutional right to return to his birthplace, he's not folding. "Oliver Stone- hypocrite! He paid them. He got the same letter I did,
but I'm not bending over like him" says the street wise producer who learned his trade organizing shows at the old New York Coliseum. "I got things done, dealing with Teamsters (and the mob) and I make things happen."

Reacting to a recent Charlize Theron production that boasts having been shot in Cuba, Moro says "they had the full support of the Cuban Government! What's the big deal? "I can make five of them with the footage I have from Cuba."

Moro's hope is now in Obama. He introduced himself at a Crenshaw Los Angeles appearance and pitched his cause to the candidate. "I told Obama I know how you can win Florida. If Cuba was white there would be no embargo. I was born in Cuba and the majority of the people in Florida want the embargo to end. "That got his attention and I know he took it to heart."

Moro followed up, visiting Washington D.C in June, not to settle with the US Treasury Department (the federal branch with jurisdiction over the trade embargo) but to meet the Latin American Workers Group and to bring Congressional whip Charles Rangel on board. While there Moro swung by Obama's senate office dropping a pile of "Love and Suicide" DVDs. "A couple months later Obama came out against the embargo."

He dismisses Michael Moore's documentary as grandstanding. "That representation of Cuba is bullshit" says Moro. His uncle languished in a Cuban hospital-not the Havana hospital Moore touts-and he shot video showing the almost medieval conditions in which he died of stomach cancer. Moro cools down and shooting a broad Hollywood smile tells ANIMAL "they love my movie in Cuba, you know? Now how has anyone there screened Love and Suicide? Moro sent five hundred DVDs to Cuba "But I sent them through France."

No Underwear, Soup Packages to Cuba
In government documents shown to ANIMAL, Luis Moro is served in a civil action, with the state department demanding penalties for his travel to Cuba.

An internal Post office memo shown to ANIMAL alerts USPS employees to question customers attempting to send mail to Iran, Sudan and Cuba. In the Cuban enclaves of Miami Florida and Union City, New Jersey, Cuban Americans have routinely sent care packages to struggling relatives in Cuba (The number one item shipped? Knorr Chicken Bouillon). Now the piecemeal stream of socks, underwear and oodles of noodles now been cut off, and it remains unclear exactly why. "Basically you can only send letters to Cuba" Molly Millerwise, a spokeswoman for the United States Department of the Treasury told ANIMAL. The two postal authorities, US and Cuba- have agreed to mail envelopes; letters can be mailed no problem. "Packages, there are prohibitions on but its nothing new. We don't allow Cuban goods in and we maintain economic sanctions against Cuba" explained Millerwise. "Treasury hasn't changed the policy, the USPS has changed" a Treasury agent told ANIMAL "its been on the books for decades, they've only started to enforce it."

Anyone who is looking for an exception can appeal to the Office of Foreign Asset Control for a license or special permission but we haven't heard of anyone whose gotten an exemption. So if you're trying to send socks to your uncle, let us know.

Luis Moro Productions
www.morofilms.com

POLITRIKS

4 comments

by ANIMAL on April 7, 2008