Film of the week “Ticket to Paradise” by Gerardo Chijona

Director Gerardo Chijona Valdes guides the actors to realistic performances, though the Cuban drama’s last third begins to feel contrived.
Based on actual events following the dissolution of the USSR and ensuing economic chaos in Cuba, Gerardo Chijona Valdes’ feature Ticket to Paradise is anything but, depicting the often harrowing struggles of neglected teens trying to survive on the streets amidst of a faltering economy. A perceptive and sensitive portrayal of a runaway country girl’s coming of age, the film will find a home with

Raúl Pérez Ureta: 2010 National Film Prize Winner

Raúl Pérez Ureta, one of the contemporary Cuban cinema’s main photography directors, has been awarded the National Film Prize, a distinction that has recognized the lifetime work of such figures as Alfredo Guevara, Julio García Espinosa, Humberto Solás, Daisy Granados, Fernando Pérez, Nelson Rodríguez, and Leo Brouwer, among others.

Influenced by images inherited from great international photographers such as Greg Toland, Gianni di Venanzo, Jordan Cronenweth, and Serguei Urusevski, Raúl Pérez Ureta has a peculiar way of illuminating, framing, composing, and moving the camera. Each distinguished reference has nurtured his faculty to position light, his great subtlety to design the visual atmosphere of a film.