Cuban Cinema in Union City

Conversation About Cuban Film

with renowned filmmaker Ricardo Bacallao… "The Cuban Woody Allen"

& World Premiere of the film "Mondongo Cubano"

The City of Union City presents Conversation About Cuban Film with renowned filmmaker Ricardo Bacallao, known as "The Cuban Woody Allen" on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 at 8:00 PM at the William V. Musto Cultural Center, 420 - 15 Street, Union City, NJ.  There will be live music and refreshments.  Admission is free.

The evening will be dedicated to a discussion about Cuban cinema, its style, and its influence on filmmaking world-wide.  The World Premiere screening of  the short film "Mondongo Cubano" will be followed by a question and answer period with its director/producer, Ricardo Bacallao.

About Ricardo Bacallao

"There is a small group of modern filmmakers who have made a significant impact in the New York City film industry, and in doing so, revolutionized the industry as a whole and most importantly how the general public sees their respective communities; most notably Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Woody Allen.  These three exceptional filmmakers are New York.  What was missing?  The Latino perspective.  Now add to this short list a hungry, young, Cuban filmmaker trained at some of the world's most prestigious film schools, and you have Ricardo Bacallao. 

                        

Ricardo Bacallao was born in Havana, Cuba. He graduated as Director of film, TV, and Radio from Havana's Superior Institute, and received his MFA in film from NYU (Tisch Asia school of the Art, in Singapore). While living in Madrid and Berlin, Ricardo participated several times in the Berlin Film Festival, including being awarded as the first Cuban representative to the festival's Talent Campus at the first time event in 2003 and awarded again in 2004. In 2010, a segment Ricardo produced for CUNY TV's magazine show Nueva York won a New York Emmy Award. Since that time, he has been working as a freelance director, Cameraman, producer and editor of documentary and Fiction.  “Mondongo Cubano”; “Christmas Therapy” are the latest short films. His current documentary is “Rite of Passage” for California Endowment Fund, about the curriculum program of Dr. Maulana Karenga, who created Kwaanza.  Ricardo first came to the U.S. in December of 2005 from Germany, when he was invited to tour universities around the United States screening his documentaries on topics such as race, immigration, Santeria, and madness in the arts. Bacallao is just completing "The Uncle’s Request”, his first feature film, a Political thriller, and Romañach, a dramedy, is in pre-production. The goal of Ricardo is to produce a feature film every year in the U.S. with the background of the Cuban perspective as Woody Allen, Scorsese and Spike Lee did films for their communities.  No doubt that Ricardo will accomplish this goal.  If the aforementioned filmmakers are synonymous to NYC, then we can safely say… Ricardo Bacallao is "The Cuban Woody Allen". "

--The Hudson Independent News