If you like heavy metal and if you are an anti-Castro freedom loving individual, then you should tune in tonight to Cubanarama and Marta’s online “live” interview with Nicholas Brennan. The interview will deal with the documentary, “Hard Rock Havana” and a popular/famous heavy metal band named Zeus. They’ve been rocking the island of Cuba for 20 years already and with their message of liberty to all Cuban citizens but the rest of the world has been excluded. Nicholas Brennan’s project is raising money on kickstarter, more on the documentary:
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
As the director of Hard Rock Havana, I have spent the past four years traveling back and forth between New York and Havana documenting the story of Zeus, Cuba’s legendary heavy metal band and their lives inside the communist country’s “official” rock scene. I was drawn to their story because, as an American filmmaker raised on rock and roll, it was a way of looking at Cuba from a shared experience—seeing life inside this changing society through the struggles of its rock stars and their dedicated fans. What emerges in this feature-length documentary is an intimate portrait of a community of musicians following their dreams with a passion and resilience that can inspire us all.
The story starts when lead singer Diony Arce began playing rock music in the 1980s. Back then, rock and roll was seen as an evil capitalist influence……..Learn More
Here’s the intro to this Cubanarama interview:
HAVANA, Cuba—On the margins of this isolated country better known for cigars and Castro, a vibrant heavy metal scene flourishes. The most iconic stars are the members of Zeus, the country’s oldest heavy metal band. They’ve performed in Havana since the 1980s, when this American-influenced music was officially banned by the Castro government.
The long-haired rockers (called “freakies”) were thrown in jail and concerts were broken up by state police. Thirty years later, rock music is tolerated, but barely. A government bureaucracy called the Agency of Rock controls Cuba’s heavy metal scene. Every concert and every record must be cleared with the Agency’s director of Rock. It’s a sign of the changing situation in Cuba, but it’s also an absurd position for the country’s heavy metal musicians.
To play their music, Zeus and their diehard fans must fight to be true to themselves within the confines set by the Cuban government. “People always listen to the hardest music because it is a way of reaffirming their passion and liberty against everything that is imposed on them,” says Ivan Vera, the guitarist for Zeus. “That, I believe, is the reason for heavy metal.” American filmmaker, Nicholas Brennan, has spent the past four years capturing Zeus’s story and the broader history of heavy metal in Cuba…..Read and Listen/Call-In to the Interview