Cuba: Beyond the Pearl of the Antilles

Joycelyn Bejar, Producer, Writer, and Director

El Malecón, La Habana, Cuba

Joycelyn Bejar and Rafael Kravec

The Miami International Film Festival presented a screening of the award-winning film, Cuba: Beyond the Pearl of the Antilles, on July 21 for members of the Miami Film Society. More than 250 film-goers enjoyed the screening at the Tower Theater in Little Havana followed by a Q & A with producer, writer, and director, Joycelyn Bejar.

An award-winning documentary at the 2005 Miami Jewish Film Festival, Cuba: Beyond the Pearl of the Antilles, documents the lives of many Cuban Jews who left Cuba in 1960, where they had lived since the early 1900s. The film is a thought-provoking documentary describing a political perspective which clearly illustrates the severe adverse effect that Castro has had on the Cuban people and their economy. It also explains how the Jewish community in Cuba continues to survive and explores how they arrived in Cuba, how they continue to practice Judaism, and why it is that they have remained closed to their roots. What was the Cuban Jewish community of yesterday? What happened to the 1,500 of the 15,000 Jews that remained to endure 45 years under Castro’s regime?

Joycelyn Bejar