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Havana Libre is a documentary about devotion, about what it means to love something deeply in a place where that love is barely allowed to exist.
In Cuba, surfing and other water sports were banned for decades. Even now, the sport lives in a legal gray zone, practiced quietly and carefully, watched by authorities and kept alive by a small, determined community who refuse to let it disappear. What remains is improvised, fragile, and deeply human.
The film follows Frank, one of the most respected surfers on the island, and Yaya, a surfer and community leader committed to creating access for the next generation. When surfing is announced as an Olympic sport, the possibility of recognition feels suddenly real—and just as suddenly dangerous. We watch surfers shape boards from scavenged materials, travel across the island in search of waves, and cautiously negotiate with officials for the right to exist. When Frank is invited to an international qualifying event, he’s forced into an impossible choice: compete and risk never returning home, or stay with his wife and newborn child.
Havana Libre offers no easy resolutions. Instead, it lingers in the tension, the sacrifice, and the quiet bravery of choosing to keep going. Long after the screen goes dark, the film leaves us with a question that stays close: what are you willing to risk to keep doing the thing that makes you feel alive?
6pm - Doors.
7pm - Film Starts.
Havana Libre is a documentary about devotion, about what it means to love something deeply in a place where that love is barely allowed to exist.
In Cuba, surfing and other water sports were banned for decades. Even now, the sport lives in a legal gray zone, practiced quietly and carefully, watched by authorities and kept alive by a small, determined community who refuse to let it disappear. What remains is improvised, fragile, and deeply human.
The film follows Frank, one of the most respected surfers on the island, and Yaya, a surfer and community leader committed to creating access for the next generation. When surfing is announced as an Olympic sport, the possibility of recognition feels suddenly real—and just as suddenly dangerous. We watch surfers shape boards from scavenged materials, travel across the island in search of waves, and cautiously negotiate with officials for the right to exist. When Frank is invited to an international qualifying event, he’s forced into an impossible choice: compete and risk never returning home, or stay with his wife and newborn child.
Havana Libre offers no easy resolutions. Instead, it lingers in the tension, the sacrifice, and the quiet bravery of choosing to keep going. Long after the screen goes dark, the film leaves us with a question that stays close: what are you willing to risk to keep doing the thing that makes you feel alive?
6pm - Doors.
7pm - Film Starts.
