La tropical

In La Tropical, a large ballroom on the outskirts of Havana, Cubans have been dancing away their problems for more than half a century. The story of La Tropical is the story of Cuba. The clubhouse was opened in the forties by a successful brewer, as a place of entertainment for his black and mulatto workers, who were excluded from the white clubs of Havana. Since most rich whites left the country during the 1959 revolution, to this day 95 percent of the visitors is still poor and black. They dance the rumba, the timba and salsa to the music of the Grammy Award-winning band Los Van Van and the ‘father of Cuban music’, Juan Cruz Predito. Illustrated by portraits of people in and around La Tropical, David Turnley shows to what extent music, race, class and socialism play a role in Cuban life. The close-up camera, drawing in accurate frames with great depth in black-and-white, betrays that we are watching a photographer’s work. David Turnley, who has made his first full-length documentary with La tropical, won the World Press Picture of the Year in 1988 and 1991, and in 1990 the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for photography. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)