UPCOMING EVENTS
Havana Libre (Film)
The Dance Hall presents Havana Libre as the next installment of it's burgeoning film series, "inFocus film".
FILM SYNOPSIS
In Cuba, where people fled en masse from Fidel Castro’s regime, surfing and other water activities have been banned for decades. Today, surfing exists in a murky legal gray area and is viewed with suspicion by the Cuban authorities.
Despite these challenges, a group of passionate Cuban surfers is determined to carve out a place for surfing in the country's culture of athletic excellence. Frank is one of the most established surfers and to many the best surfer on the island. Yaya is a community leader and surfer who has made it her mission to ensure that the next generation can surf freely. When surfing is announced as an official sport for the Tokyo Olympics, they see their chance to bring their sport out of the shadows and on to the world stage. What follows is a tale of underground surfers building their own boards from scratch, dodging the authorities as they travel the island looking for the perfect wave, and attempting to legitimize their passion by persuading the Cuban authorities to field an Olympic team.
When Frank is invited to participate in a qualifier event out of the country, he must decide whether to compete, which would mean embarking on an illegal journey and risking permanent separation from his wife and newborn baby. Yaya is similarly torn when she is invited to participate in a surf symposium in Hawaii. Havana Libre is a story of people following their passion at great danger to themselves and ultimately begs the question: what would you risk to chase your dreams?
run time: 84min
Plus Q+A with the filmmaker!
$15 General Admission
*fees not included ($2 facility fee per ticket + cc processing fees)
FAR OUT: Life On & After the Commune (Film Screening)
Far Out traces the evolution of our little communal family from its urban origins in a left wing faction fight at Liberation News Service (LNS) through years of subsistence, back-to-the-land farming, to the re-awakening of our political and social activism through such things as community theatre and anti-nuclear organizing. Our story includes a dramatic act of home town civil disobedience, the building of a national movement, five nights of sold out anti-nuclear concerts at Madison Square Garden with the likes of Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills and Nash and many others as well as a 250,000 person rally.
Far Out paints an intimate portrait of how this group of artists and activists dealt with the pressing issues of the day–gay and women's rights, sexual freedom, nuclear power, raising children, the role of the family–to the realities of life, relationships and money in an anarchic communal setting. It’s been a long, strange trip as the Grateful Dead put it and I’m glad that I was able to come along for the ride. And to document it.
A panel with film maker Charles Light and Verandah Porche to intro the film and do a Q@A after the showing.
$18 advance | $22 day-of | $12 student
*fees not included ($2 facility fee per ticket + cc processing fees)