Balseros (2002)

6.5/10 • 120 min • Documentary

Overview

In the summer of 1994, a team of public television reporters filmed and interviewed seven Cubans a few days before their risky venture of setting out to sea in homemade rafts to reach the coast of the United States. Six made it far enough to be picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard. When these balseros (rafters) were finally allowed to go to the United States, the film crew went with them to a string of several cities. Seven years later, the film crew visits them again, to discover that their destiny has been in the United States. Theirs is a true story about some of the authentic survivors of our times, the human adventure of people who are shipwrecked between two worlds.

Cast

Maria Celeste Arraras

Self (archive footage)

Fidel Castro

Self (archive footage)

Bill Clinton

Self (archive footage)

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Ex Libris: The New York Public Library