If there's one big surprise in Kim Anno's documentary ¡Quba!, it may very well be just how incredibly full of life and celebration the film is throughout its 70-minute running time. Set against the backdrop of Havana's sun-drenched streets, seldom captured as wondrously as they are here by cinematographer Roberto Chile, this is a film that blazes its trail through Cuba's LGBTQ revolution up to and including the historic 2022 marriage equality victory that let love win in this revolutionary nation that has always had a tenuous relationship with the United States. 

This film isn't about that relationship. In fact, at its very heart is Adela Hernandez, a trailblazing trans politician who became the first transgender person in Cuba's government - a remarkable contrast from the dark days of UMAP imprisonment. There are others captured just as powerfully here including Ramon Silverio, who transforms his cultural haven El Mejunje into a sort of ground zero for social change with a delightful caravan of artists and performers who create art and hope across the Cuban countryside. There's Las Isabellas and Ulises Suarez, firebrands who change cultural messaging and directly confront Cuba's machismo stereotypes and religious bigotry head-on and with powerful, nation-changing results. 

While Anno doesn't deny the struggles nor the traumas along the way, ¡Quba! is a film that illuminates with life, hope, and victories won and fully leaned into. The first LGBTQ director to make a feature film about this topic, Anno was embraced by the Cuban LGBTQ community while filming in such places as Havana, Santa Clara, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, and others. 

Original music by Marc Zollinger complements the film's narrative quite nicely and this is a film that captures the heart and soul of what it means to create both beauty and social change. Anno has crafted a film that is vibrant, tender, and utterly unforgettable. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic