52 minutes / Color
Spanish / English subtitles
Release: 2018
Copyright: 2016
An independent film financed through crowdfunding and without the financial support of traditional Cuban film institutions, THE SINGULAR STORY OF UNLUCKY JUAN is a comprehensive, accessible examination of the Cuban economy. Using a fictional worker called Juan as an example, the film shows how the economy affects the daily lives of ordinary citizens—and how badly it squeezes those who don’t have access to hard currency.
Cuba has two currencies: the Cuban Peso and the CUC—a far more valuable currency pegged to international exchange rates. Tourists pay in CUCs and shop at CUC stores, which stock higher quality goods at a huge premium.
Divided into chapters covering rations, the marketplace, CUC stores, private business, corruption, economic migration, and future Cuba, the documentary walks us through how each of these affects Juan and those like him. The film interviews a cross-section of Cuban workers and an economist who favors a more free market approach, and offers sometimes hypnotic shots evoking economic activity: butchers cutting meat, fruit vendors at markets, shops lined with luxury goods inaccessible to most.
Juan starts the month with 250 Cuban pesos. But once he’s paid for his food rations, extra food to meet his needs for the month, transit, utilities, and the new energy-efficient fridge he was obliged to buy (and use 20% of his monthly salary to pay off over a 10-year term), there is little left. No wonder so many Cubans rely on living with relatives, overseas remittances, or getting involved in corruption and the black market.
As bad as things are, Cubans worry about what the future will look like once relations with the United States eventually become normalized. Speaking about the US, they worry the Americans “will swallow us whole”. The door has already been slightly opened—with a new foreign economic development zone and relaxed rules allowing some Cubans to own private businesses. But these are no panacea either. Small-business owners report frequent harassment, ticketing for endless infractions, and bureaucratic roadblocks. “I don’t own this business,” says a tired-looking woman, “I am its slave.”
"The Singular Story of Unlucky Juan has the audacity to openly and bravely question the reality of the average Cuban who, even with their standard rations, is barely scraping by." —Havana Times
"Joy, audacity; a timely addition to any examination of numerous areas of academic study: Cuba, U.S./Cuban relations, political and economic systems in Latin America, history, sociology... Profound and thought-provoking; a creative way to contemplate stories of human endurance in the face of oppression." —Dr. Douglas J. Weatherford, in the journal Hispania
"By laying out the experiences of Juan, a fictional ordinary Cuban, this documentary does an excellent job of breaking down the complexities—and ultimately the compounding inequities—of Cuba's dual currency system." —Dr. Sujatha Fernandes, Sociology professor and author of books including 'Curated Stories' and 'Cuba Represent!'
"Remarkable! Infographics, animation, text and detailed drawings contribute to a succinct explanation of a largely invisible problem." —Inter Press Service en Cuba (IPS)
Select Accolades
Profiles Lency, a man who lives in Cuba's central mountains who has a creative solution to all of life's daily problems there.
Rigoberto Jimenez | 2013 | 30 minutes | Color | English; Spanish
The films are all independent productions, and together they offer the rare opportunity to see Cuba documented by media artists whose work has been little seen outside the country.
Various | Color
Unveils the complexities of a Cuban society frequently misrepresented by the media.
María Isabel Alfonso, Ph.D. | 2019 | 37 minutes | Color | Spanish | English subtitles
Anthropologist's film reunites a family 200 years after they were torn apart by the transatlantic slave trade.
Emma Christopher, Ph.D. | 2015 | 79 minutes | Color | English; Spanish | English subtitles | Closed Captioned
An in-depth portrait of a Cuban agricultural collective that has drawn international acclaim for its sustainable practices.
Alejandro Ramirez Anderson | 2014 | 49 minutes | Color | Spanish | English subtitles
Five Cuban intellectuals discuss censorship as a historical, political and social phenomenon.
Karel Ducasse | 2013 | 40 minutes | Color | English; Spanish | English subtitles
