Unfinished Spaces doc at he IFC Center - Cuba, Que Bella Es!

As if there weren't enough to love about the IFC Center, tonight was the second of eight Stranger Than Fiction screenings, which is a series they program there that brings a new (or sometimes old) documentary to audiences every Tuesday for a couple months straight. I will go next week, too.

Tonight they showed Unfinished Spaces, a documentary about a fascinating architectural project in Cuba.  This movie also screened at the LA Film Festival last year and most recently at the Havana Film Festival. It introduced us to three architects appointed by Castro in the 60's to design five separate arts schools in Havana, and broke our hearts slowly as we watched what became of the once-cherished monuments over time.  It was a surprisingly moving story that used bricks and arches and fountains as a metaphor both for the ever-changing historical landscape as well as possibly the lives of the architects who poured their hearts into the project. And here I was, expecting a fairly dry history lesson.

It would have been so fun to see the movie at a screening where the architect subjects were in attendance, but the two (super young!) directors were at least on hand for an insightful Q&A.

Here's a link to the trailer on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/19665915