News

Documentary is selected for upcoming Orlando Film Festival, creators launch national college tour

LAKELAND – (Oct. 3) Voices From Mariel, the one-of-a-kind documentary film produced locally by NFocus Pictures and featuring Florida Southern College professor Dr. Jose Garcia, continues to capture national acclaim and will now be featured in a nationwide college tour.

The film has been selected for inclusion in the prestigious Orlando Film Festival in October as well as the New Jersey Film Festival, the Jersey Shore Film Festival, and the Alexandria Film Festival.  The documentary will screen at 5:30 p.m. on October 20 and 12:30 p.m. on October 21 in theater 11 at the Plaza Cinema Café, 155 N. Orange Avenue, in Orlando. 

The showing of Voices From Mariel at the Orlando Film Festivalwill be followed by a post-screening question and answer session with Dr. Jose Garcia, film director Jim Carleton, and producers Rob Tritton and Jesse Larson. 

Voices From Mariel has already received international acclaim by earning the Jury Award for Best Caribbean Film at the Aruba International Film Festival (AIFF) and the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary at the Gasparilla International Film Festival this year.  

In addition, the film creators will be taking the documentary on the road beginning this month as part of a nationwide college tour.  As with the Orlando festival screenings, the film will be shown to college audiences with a question and answer session to follow.

Voices From Mariel will be shown at Montclair State University in New Jersey on October 10, Bergen Community College in New Jersey on October 11, the University of Miami on October 27, and Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth on November 3.  For more information about the current college tour, or to schedule a showing of Voices From Mariel, please contact Rob Tritton, NFocus, 863-581-5815 or rtritton@getnfocus.com.

More about Voices From Mariel… In 1980, Cuban leader Fidel Castro permitted his people to board boats at the Port of Mariel to come to the United States. Nearly 125,000 Cuban citizens, from April to September of that year, crowded barely seaworthy boats in search of a better life in America. Dr. Garcia and his parents were among those who made it. He was 13 years old. He is now the Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies and Modern Languages Chair at Florida Southern College.

Garcia’s desire to rediscover his Cuban heritage was the impetus for Voices From Mariel.

In the film, Garcia and the NFocus team conduct numerous interviews with other Mariel survivors willing to share their stories. They also return to Cuba to document Garcia’s experiences as he reconnects with loved ones still living in Cuba today.

According to the film’s producers, the project involved great planning and risk and is believed to be a one-of-a-kind look at the lives of Mariel’s Cuban-Americans 30 years later. It also provides a recent and rare glimpse into the lives of people who still live in Cuba today.

For more information about Florida Southern College and Voices From Mariel, click here.   To watch the trailer and learn more about the film, visit www.voicesfrommariel.com.  To view a recent interview with the film’s creators on Studio10 visit Voices From Mariel on Studio10 TV.