27 – 29 September 2026
A double programme featuring restored experimental shorts of Cuban filmmakers Miñuca and Fernando Villaverde, plus the Villaverdes’ Tent City and Carlos Oteyza’s Mayami Nuestro, two restored documentaries from 1981 exploring, respectively, Cuban and Venezuelan migrant communities in Miami.
Presented by Cinema Mentiré, Jonathan Ali and José Luis Aparicio. With thanks to Cinesa, Francisco Llinas, Filmoteca de Catalunya and Fernando and Miñuca Villaverde.
A double programme featuring restored experimental shorts of Cuban filmmakers Miñuca and Fernando Villaverde, plus the Villaverdes’ Tent City and Carlos Oteyza’s Mayami Nuestro, two restored documentaries from 1981 exploring, respectively, Cuban and Venezuelan migrant communities in Miami.
Presented by Cinema Mentiré, Jonathan Ali and José Luis Aparicio. With thanks to Cinesa, Francisco Llinas, Filmoteca de Catalunya and Fernando and Miñuca Villaverde.
Cinema Mentiré is a pop-up film club bringing a taste of rare classic and contemporary Latin American films to UK audiences.
Jonathan Ali is a film curator and writer with a particular interest in critical Caribbean cinema.
José Luis Aparicio is a Cuban filmmaker and curator based in Madrid, Spain.
Jonathan Ali is a film curator and writer with a particular interest in critical Caribbean cinema.
José Luis Aparicio is a Cuban filmmaker and curator based in Madrid, Spain.
Programme
Sunday 27th September, 5:30pm
Bodies Adrift: Miami
Both from 1981, Miñuca Villaverde's Tent City and Carlos Oteyza's Mayami Nuestro present contrasting and penetrating non-fiction portraits of Latin American diaspora communities in Miami.
Tuesday 29th September, 8.30pm
Bodies Adrift: Villaverdes’ Shorts
The second programme of Bodies Adrift traces the Villaverde filmmaking couple trajectory from revolutionary Cuba in the early 1960s to the experimental underground scene of 1970s New York. Beginning with The Park (1963), filmed in one of Havana’s epicentres, and continuing through a series of intimate works made in exile, the session reveals their continuous reinvention of cinematic form and production methods. Moving from institutional filmmaking to a radically independent practice shot on 16mm with minimal resources, the Villaverdes remained at the margins of the cultural movements they inhabited. Their Cuban films were often censored or scarcely exhibited, while their US output has only recently begun to be discovered through restorations by the Filmoteca de Catalunya.
Sunday 27th September, 5:30pm
Bodies Adrift: Miami
Both from 1981, Miñuca Villaverde's Tent City and Carlos Oteyza's Mayami Nuestro present contrasting and penetrating non-fiction portraits of Latin American diaspora communities in Miami.
Tuesday 29th September, 8.30pm
Bodies Adrift: Villaverdes’ Shorts
The second programme of Bodies Adrift traces the Villaverde filmmaking couple trajectory from revolutionary Cuba in the early 1960s to the experimental underground scene of 1970s New York. Beginning with The Park (1963), filmed in one of Havana’s epicentres, and continuing through a series of intimate works made in exile, the session reveals their continuous reinvention of cinematic form and production methods. Moving from institutional filmmaking to a radically independent practice shot on 16mm with minimal resources, the Villaverdes remained at the margins of the cultural movements they inhabited. Their Cuban films were often censored or scarcely exhibited, while their US output has only recently begun to be discovered through restorations by the Filmoteca de Catalunya.
