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Floridians Team Up to Create a True Perspective of Cuba

Floridians Team Up to Create a True Perspective of Cuba

| Sande Caplin |

The documentary film “Frenemies”, a Sarasota production, promises to challenge our views of our controversial neighbor. Florida filmmakers Mirella Martinelli and Elizabeth Coffman started shooting their new documentary film, Frenemies. The producers invite Sarasotans to the kickoff event of their Crowdfunding Campaign on 7/11/18. All donations are tax deductible through our non-profit Long Distance Educational Media.

Frenemies, an hour-long documentary reveals how people raised in the U.S. perceive Cuba once they see it first-hand. Frenemies addresses political hot topics about Cuba with a dialogic approach, representing the interlocking, co-dependent views of “friends” and “enemies” — Frenemies. Cuban music and its unique culture add spice to the film.

Martinelli, a 2017 recipient of the John Ringling Tower Fund Grant in Performing Arts for this documentary film, retells the history of Cuba and its relationship with the United States with fresh eyes and voices. Through interviews with citizens who traveled to or have migrated from Cuba, the film employs engaging, archival footage and current images of the island to illustrate the visitors’ experiences.

The documentary film “Frenemies”, a Sarasota production, promises to challenge our views of our controversial neighborCoffman, who taught at the University of Tampa with Martinelli in 2000, recently joined the project as the film producer. Coffman earned her PhD in Cinema Studies from the University of Florida, and in 2016, received the NEH Production grant and support from PBS’s American Masters for Flannery.

Sarasota film lovers may remember Martinelli from the 2017 Sarasota Film Festival for the film Pool, the powerful 30-minute narrative film, screened at Through Women’s Eyes Film Festival. Directed by Leandro Goddinho and edited by Martinelli, Pool has now gathered 38 international awards in film festivals, including Best Short Film at the Tampa Bay International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Best Foreign Language Short at the Orlando Film Festival and Honorable Mention at the MiFo LGBT Film Festival in Miami.

Martinelli is a successful filmmaker with a 34-year film career focused primarily on documentaries including Land of the Sea, a feature-length documentary film funded by the Rockefeller and McArthur Foundations, which also relied on interviews as narration. She now directs Frenemies.

Martinelli and Coffman are crowdfunding for Frenemies through Indiegogo. In the launching event they will show excerpts previous works by the film director as well as a surprise and Frenemies excerpts. This documentary will bring information about Cuba that has simply been missing or barely accessible for most US audiences. Frenemies, brings a new perspective of the island of Cuba, geographically so close, yet estranged by decades of political barriers.

To learn more about the film visit: MovingImages.pictures

For Press Inquiries contact: Mirella Martinelli; micaglasberg@gmail.com (727) 365 7097

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