90 Miles

In 1980, Juan Carlos Zaldivar was ripped from his contented Communist childhood in Cuba and transplanted to Miami with his entire family. Zaldivar's documentary 90 Miles chronicles his attempts to come to terms with his own border sensibility, shaped both by his blended national identity and by his homosexuality. Employing only thinly-veiled metaphor, Zaldivar embarks on what is ultimately a quest for acceptance both from his father and his fatherland. Just as his father, beaten down by his failure to achieve the American Dream, is ultimately able to accept his son's lifestyle, so Zaldivar must reconcile the happy memories of his Cuban childhood with the reasons his family had to leave in the first place. Cutting nimbly between his own past, his family's history, and Cuban events, Zaldivar's film is shot mostly in bland video, with added home movie and archival news footage. Still, while it may not be all that appealing visually, this moving story sounds great, thanks to a soundtrack brimming with Cuban music. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (D. Fienberg)