The Liu Institute’s Research Group on Gender and Sexuality in Latin America is pleased to invite you to:
Free Screening: Ticket to Paradise
(Cuba/Spain/Venezuela 2011; Spanish with English subtitles)
Followed by discussion with film director Gerardo Chijona, moderated by Alejandra Bronfman (History, UBC).
Thursday, September 6, 4-7pm
Liu Institute for Global Issues, Multipurpose Room
Please RSVP
Ticket to Paradise won the Audience Award at Biarritz, Best Film at Malaga, and was nominated for Best Latin American Film at the Spanish Goya Awards. This film will also be screened at the 2012 Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.
Roundtable Discussion: “Cuba’s Special Period: Frikies, Film, and the AIDS Crisis
With Gerardo Chijona (filmmaker from Cuba), Antonio Eligio Fernández Tonel (Art History, Visual Art, and Theory, UBC), Jerry Spiegel (School of Population and Public Health, UBC), and Oralia Gómez-Ramírez (Research Group on Gender and Sexuality in Latin America, UBC).
Friday, September 7, 2-4pm
Liu Institute for Global Issues, Caseroom
Please RSVP
In the midst of Cuba’s “Special Period” (1990-1999) — a severe economic and political crisis spearheaded by the downfall of the communist bloc, the US-lead embargo and the failure of its farming industry — frikies, a crowd of young people including gothic, metal heads, and skateboard kids, took over the streets of Havana. They established a vibrant counter-culture scene influenced by European and North American punk culture. It was the same period in which Cuba endured one of the worst health crises in the nation’s history due to the scarcity of nutritious food. Throughout the crisis, Cuba’s public health care system not only managed to stay afloat but sustained worldwide recognition, in part due to its approach in treating the AIDS epidemic. People living with HIV were housed in “Los Cocos”, a clinic located near Havana. Equipped with excellent medical facilities, patients were given salaries, allowed to bring their families to live with them, and were fed high protein meals not easily available to other Cubans. Loosely based on the diaries of Dr. Jorge Perez Avila, director of “Los Cocos Sanatorium”, Gerardo Chijona’s film Ticket to Paradise tells the story of a group of Cuban frikies who see in the AIDS healthcare system an escape from the socioeconomic conditions they encountered.The special screening of “Ticket to Paradise” and the roundtable discussion “Cuba’s Special Period: Frikies, Film and the AIDS Crisis” will serve as a forum to discuss the geopolitical forces that have shaped the lives of Cubans in recent decades, their connections with global health policies, and the role that film plays in disseminating these complex histories.
Hosted by the Liu Institute’s Research Group on Gender and Sexuality in Latin America. More information at the research group’s blog. Thanks to the Liu Institute for Global Issues for its kind support.