Event

CineSeattle: Luchando

Luchando
55/2009-USA (*Coproduction: Cuba) North West Coast Premiere
Spanish w/ English subtitles

Directed by/Dirigido por: Noelle Stout.

Luchando chronicles the everyday struggles of four Cuban jineteros (hustlers), who set out to resolve their touching, and at-times humorous, dilemmas in Havanas gay underground. The film combines verite footage and informal interviews, to offer a first-
ever look at same-sex prostitution, in Cuba. Historically, "luchando" has meant the fight for the Cuban revolution, but in Cuba's gay enclaves, the word describes the struggle of having sex for money. After the fall of the Socialist Bloc, in the early nineties, Cuba suffered a total economic collapse and witnessed the rise of same-sex prostitution. Luchando provides a window into this growing community of sex workers, through the lives of four of its most compelling characters: Diosa, an articulate trans woman who was kicked out of her fathers home for cross-dressing; Manuel, a macho technician who grapples with his sexual identity as he engages in intimate relationships with men; La Gorda (The Fat Girl), an aspiring rapper; and Yuris, a cocky 19-year-old whose womanizing has resulted in four children, he must hustle to support. Together, the characters stories embody the dilemmas of post-soviet Cuba--a nation torn between the ideals of socialist equality and a rapidly widening gap between the rich and poor.

This film has universal appeal in that it tells a similar story about the human condition in developing countries around the world.