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This film is in Spanish with English subtitles. The Q&A will be in Spanish.
Speaker: Lilo Vilaplana, Film director; Genoveva Canaval, ex-political prisoner.
Moderated by: Emily Carrero-Mustelier, PhD Candidate at Harvard University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and President and Founder of the Harvard Cuban-American Student Association (CASA); Layra de la Caridad Valdés-Ramirez, Student at Harvard University’s School of Dental Medicine, and Vice-President and Founder of the Harvard Cuban-American Student Association (CASA).
Join us for a screening and post-film Q&A discussion of Plantadas, a film based on real-life testimonies, which tells the stories of three women who fought to restore democracy in Cuba and who were betrayed by the leader of the Revolution; eventually they ended up in prison where their human rights were violated. The film premiered at the 2023 Miami Film Festival and won the Feature Film Award and the Audience Award.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Cuban filmmaker Lilo Vilaplana, the director of Plantadas, and Genoveva Canaval, Cuban ex-political prisoner and one of the real-life “plantadas.” The screening of the film serves as a tribute to the resilience of Cubans–especially Cuban women–and highlights the hope held by those prisoners who endured harsh conditions while holding a vision of a brighter future for Cuba. This event will provide valuable insights into the Cuban experience and promote dialogue on human rights and political activism.
FILM SYNOPSIS: Three women who, after fighting to restore democracy in Cuba, feel betrayed by the leader of the revolution and the three young women, each on their own, begin to confront the new system. For different reasons they end up in prison and their lives are intertwined in the misfortune they live inside those dungeons where human rights are violated, without respecting their status as women.
Lilo Vilaplana is a Cuban film director and screenplay writer. His career started in the late 80s in Cuba. He moved to Colombia in the 90s where he directed several TV shows. In 2015 he founded Vilaplana Films, a film production company in Latin America, with physical and operational presence in Miami, United States. Lilo has brough the voice of Cuban exiles to the big screen with the film Plantados, the documentary Leyendas del Exilio, and now with Plantadas.
Genoveva Canaval is a Cuban ex-political prisoner and one of the original Plantadas. She was incarcerated when she was only 16 years old and served 6 years in prison only for having played an active role within the resistance against the regime.
Emily Carrero-Mustelier is a PhD Candidate in Geophysics at Harvard University and the President and Founder of the Harvard Cuban-American Student Association (CASA). She graduated from Columbia University in 2021, where she graduated with honors and wrote a prize-winning honors thesis on Seismology. In addition to her current scientific research she is a born and raised Cuban writer, translator, and activist.
Layra de la Caridad Valdés-Ramirez is a fourth-year student at Harvard University’s School of Dental Medicine, and Vice-President and Founder of the Harvard Cuban-American Student Association (CASA). She graduated from Western Connecticut State University in 2019, where she majored in Biochemistry and minored in Biology, and received several awards. She was born and raised in Cuba.
Presented in collaboration with LULAC, Bandera Cubana