March 2008 - Thomas Nybo & Simon Umlauf

Filmmakers: Thomas Nybo and Simon Umlauf
Film: Guerrilla Radio: The Hip-Hop Struggle Under Castro 
March 04- 13, 2008

About the filmmakers | About the film | Opening Short | Tour Dates & Locations | Guerrilla Radio website | Trailer

About the filmmakers:

Thomas Nybo (on right in photo) has worked in Sudan, Lebanon, Congo, Yemen and more than 40 other countries for CNN, the United Nations, PBS FRONTLINE/World and other clients. He was an embedded war correspondent for CNN during the current war in Iraq, and reported for CNN from ground zero the week of September 11, 2001. He was one of the first CNN journalists to report, shoot and edit their own stories using lightweight digital video cameras and laptop editing systems. His other stories include AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa, the terrorist group Hezbollah, and child trafficking in Romania.

Simon Umlauf (on left in photo) is currently a producer with Mountain View Group LTD, which is well known for creating award-winning corporate communications campaigns, educational programs, TV commercials and sales tools for Fortune 500 companies. Previously, Simon worked at CNN, starting as an unpaid intern and working his way up to a prime-time entertainment producer slot for CNN Headline News. He also created his own niche in the CNN entertainment unit and produced numerous interviews with top musical acts including Usher, Jet, Outkast, Pharrell, Kanye West, and Perry Ferrell, just to name a few. His other independent work included a monthly web column for CNN.com called "Hit Play" that focused on emerging artists and contemporary trends in music. In this venue, Simon reviewed musicians and groups who were pushing the envelope on music in many genres—Lucero, Cee-Lo Green, The Del McCoury Band, Alexi Murdoch, Cuban-American rapper Pitbull and many more. Simon Umlauf lives in Atlanta, but is a native of Austin, Texas.

About the film:

Hip-hop is a musical form often driven by protest and rebellion against the authority that surrounds it. Thomas Nybo and Simon Umlauf’s Guerrilla Radio: The Hip-Hop Struggle Under Castro explores how this anti-authoritarian, hip-hop nature plays out in the world of Castro’s Cuba where dissent against authority is all but stamped out.

Working with bare bones equipment and lacking an infrastructure to promote and distribute their music, most artists featured in Guerrilla Radio scrape out a living through black market capitalism and street performance, living in cramped apartments, or with their parents, a far cry from the lavish lifestyles of hip hop artists in the United States. Even worse, these Cuban rappers face the possibility of performance bans or imprisonment for pushing too hard at the boundaries of their artistic expression. Nybo and Umlauf take a close look at three impoverished Cuban artists and one Cuban American on the verge of making it big. To frame these biographical accounts, the filmmakers mix in an historical exploration of the roots of Cuban hip-hop, Castro’s rise to power, and a look at the realities of Cuban existence.

Through a mix of narration, historical footage, interviews, and hip-hop performances, Guerrilla Radio offers a compelling portrait of artistic assertion in the face of oppression and tyranny that will capture even those who are not fans of hip hop as a genre.

Opening Short:

The Cole Nobody Knows Directed by Clay Walker (Documentary)
This documentary profiles Chicago-native Freddy Cole, the virtually unknown, yet equally talented younger brother of Nat "King" Cole.  At age 75, Freddy Cole is, at last, finally being recognized for his amazing musical talent.

Tour Dates & Locations: