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Luchando provides an unscripted, first-ever look at the inner dealings of a rapidly growing community of sex workers in Havana's gay underground. Shot over the course of sixteen months in Havana, 100 hours of footage of six characters were edited to reflect the most compelling four stories.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

In 2002, I visited Cuba in the hopes of laying the groundwork for a film that explored how the economic crisis in Cuba was affecting Havana’s gay enclaves.

What I found as I developed closer personal relationships, was a community deeply and irrevocably affected by the wide scale emergence of same-sex prostitution.  Macho, young Cubans from the countryside were flooding Havana’s gay scene to have sex for Nike tennis shoes.  Travestis were transforming their bodies with hormones paid for by foreign tourists.  Lesbians were having sex with men to support their lovers.  Cuba’s gay culture had become overwhelmed with the presence of the sex trade. I knew this was the story I needed to tell.  

In 2004, I moved to Havana’s notorious Colon neighborhood, one of the poorest in Cuba, where I spent a year becoming integrated into hustling circles. I accompanied the characters as they pursued clients, went to jail, and spent time at home with their families and lovers. In Luchando, my aim was to present the many facets of the characters’ lives.  I hoped to make a film that did not take a moral position on the issue of prostitution or the people involved in it.  The characters in the film were not victims or easy heroes. Rather, I wanted to show how they bravely faced a world that was increasingly beyond their control.

I was eventually detained by the police for filming.  My arrest combined with increasing tensions between Cuba and the Bush administration eventually forced me to leave the country.

My greatest hope is that Luchando offers an honest portrait of the complex humanity of the characters that made the film possible. Luchando is dedicated to them.

-- Noelle Stout, May 2007

 

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