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BIG HOLLYWOOD: Tell us about Dr. Biscet.

ALLOTT: Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is President of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights based in Havana, Cuba. He is a medical doctor and is considered by many to be Cuba’s leading opposition figure. Dr. Biscet was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Castro regime for his non-violent promotion of human rights and democracy in Cuba. Oscar was recently released after spending about nine years in prison. Before this sentence, Dr. Biscet had spent three years in prison for a number of crimes including, Disrespect and Dishonoring National Symbols. Dr. Biscet only enjoyed 36 days of freedom in between these two unjust imprisonments.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Have you spoken with Dr. Biscet, or with his wife, Elsa Morejon, since his release?

ALLOTT: I have not talked to Dr. Biscet directly since his release. I would like to give him some time to get adjusted to life outside of prison and I realize many people around the world are attempting to contact him. The day after his release Oscar watched our “Oscar’s Cuba” documentary and was very humbled by it. He liked the documentary very much. About six weeks ago I was able to have a quick three-minute phone conversation with Dr. Biscet from his prison outside Havana. During this conversation he sounded strong as he thanked the international community and human rights groups in the United States for the continued support.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Obviously, you didn’t make this documentary with the blessing of the Castro brothers. Did you have any run-ins with the Castro’s repressive apparatus?

ALLOTT: I went to Cuba as a tourist and not a journalist. Because I went alone, had a relatively small amount of equipment and was careful about where I went and when, I was able to not raise too much suspicion. At one point I was stopped and questioned by the police in Santiago de Cuba in the eastern part of the country about 500 miles from Havana. The police were very angry as they overheard me asking questions about the Revolution to the locals. They even took my camera to review my recordings but, luckily, let me go without detaining me further. It was a wake-up call for me to act as discreetly as possible. A reminder that anything is possible in Cuba.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Were you afraid when you were in Cuba? Did you perceive the Cuban people to be afraid of their government?

ALLOTT: I was cautious but believed I was on a mission. So, in a sense, I felt like no matter what happened, I was doing the right thing. At the same time, Cuba is a different world, cut off from the norms and international laws we sometimes assume will protect us. I most definitely believe that among the Cuban population there is a sense of both hopelessness and fear. I believe it has invaded the Cuban mind and soul for decades. The Cuban government’s number one concern is keeping power. Conversely, in most free countries the government’s first priority is to protect the individual rights of its citizens. In Cuba, any dissent is stamped out immediately and met with a disproportionate response.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Something that I’ve heard from dissidents who have left the island, and that Dr. Biscet himself recently communicated by phone to some friends of mine at a luncheon here in LA, is that the regime is afraid of the dissidents. Obviously the regime has had fifty years to refine the art of instilling fear in others, but what we are hearing now is that the regime itself is afraid. Did you get a sense of this, of the fear the regime has of the Cuban people, while you were in Cuba?

ALLOTT: The sense I got was that the people of Cuba, although still fearing retaliation from the government, are always skeptical of what the government says. In the past, Cubans were told to fear the outside world, the United States, democracy, etc. This kept many people happy with the status quo. Now, because more people are informed, the average person doesn’t fear the outside world and therefore doesn’t fear change as much. This is an important variable, one that will make a transition to democracy much more possible.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Could you tell us a little about the conditions that Dr. Biscet was kept in?

ALLOTT: Dr. Biscet has been kept in a maximum-security prison for his entire sentence. He has been forced to live among common criminals, except for those times when he has been put in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement in Cuba, for a political prisoner, can mean lack of basic necessities like light, clean water, human contact, etc. Unfortunately Cuba does not allow international human rights groups or medical groups into Cuba’s prisons to inspect the situation. The health of most political prisoners in Cuba deteriorates quickly.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: The repressive apparatus of the Castro brothers failed to break Dr. Biscet. What makes him so strong, what keeps him going?

ALLOTT: Dr. Biscet has always maintained that his faith in Christ is what keeps him strong. His faith allows him to feel peace in knowing that he is living out the mission God has given him.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Why do you suppose the Castros released Dr. Biscet?

ALLOTT: It is difficult to say why they did this. I believe, as has always been the case, that the Castro government received some sort of economic concession from the international community. In any case, I believe that the international community needs to send a message to the Cuban government that Dr. Biscet should not be returned to prison, as we was nine years ago after only 36 days of freedom.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: You also interview Gorki Aguila in your film. Interesting guy. What can you tell us about him?

ALLOTT: In a very different way, Gorki, his band Porno Para Ricardo, and other young people have expressed their desire for a change in the system in Cuba. During a stay in prison years ago, Gorki was encouraged and inspired by his conversations with Dr. Biscet. There is a unity amongst the opposition in Cuba, despite the wide variety of individuals involved.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: How has “Oscar’s Cuba” been received?

ALLOTT: Oscar’s Cuba has been received extremely well at the over 25 screenings we have had in the United States, Europe, and Mexico. I am most excited about the number of non-Cubans we have touched with Dr. Biscet’s story and message.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Where can people see the film, and if they can’t attend a screening, can they watch it online or buy a DVD?

ALLOTT: We have a website, www.oscarscuba.com where there is more information. We sell copies of the DVD, both in English and Spanish on the same DVD, on the website.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: “Oscar’s Cuba” screened in Washington, D.C. at the Czech Embassy, I believe, and the Prime Minister of Hungary was involved in nominating Dr. Biscet for the Nobel Prize. Have you seen a lot of interest in Dr. Biscet and your film from former Communist countries?

ALLOTT: Definitely. Many of these countries have been very supportive of the opposition in Cuba and specifically Dr. Biscet. The Czech and Hungarian Embassies have been very supportive of our documentary as well. There needs to be a greater sense of this solidarity amongst nations working for freedom and democracy.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: I happen to believe that “Oscar’s Cuba” contributed greatly to Dr. Biscet’s fame, his nomination for the Nobel Prize, and eventually his release. I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but what do you think?

ALLOTT: Many people have said this to me. But I believe every individual and organization has a role to play and these roles don’t completely change now that Dr. Biscet has been released. Others still remain unjustly imprisoned, Dr. Biscet could be returned to prison at any time and Cuba itself remains one giant island prison for those who live there. So the work continues. I look at the situation in a similar way as Dr. Biscet. God has a mission for all of us, once we feel we know what that mission is, we work at it tirelessly. When positive results come, thanks goes to Him!

BIG HOLLYWOOD: What led you to become a filmmaker?

ALLOTT: When I was in college I saw the ability film had to change people and to allow the filmmaker to really express himself. I was really drawn to that. Having studied political science and philosophy, I saw film as an opportunity to extend my inquiries into these areas in a visual way. Film can also be very therapeutic. Challenging and inspiring an audience is a bonus.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: What would you say to aspiring filmmakers who despair that film just doesn’t make a difference?

ALLOTT: I would say that film, as much as any other mode of communication or means of expression, has the chance to directly affect change and make a difference. I feel that compared with 20 years ago the opportunities for individuals to make a difference through film and get their work shown has changed greatly for the positive. Distribution is really the key. The changing trends in distribution has allowed individuals outside the mainstream to get their work in the hands of viewers who are looking for something different, something unique and inspiring.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: You’ve named your production company In Altum Productions. Could you tell us what that means?

ALLOTT: “In Altum” is Latin for “into the deep.” Jesus Christ commanded his disciples, and thus all of us, to “go out into the deep to become fishers of men.” Sometimes the world, like a large body of water, can be a scary and overwhelming place. But we are commanded to set aside our fear and overcome this challenge for Him and each other. This is one of the goals of In Altum Productions, to take on projects and subject matter that is challenging, both to the filmmakers involved and the audience.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: What is your next project?

ALLOTT: I am currently editing a new project focusing on the youth of Cuba, their involvement in the opposition, as well as their daily joys and sadness. It was shot in January of 2011 and has a “day in the life” type feel as we follow a number of young people during their daily activities. It has a very difficult look than Oscar’s Cuba, but should compliment it well. We hope to have it finished by mid-May, 2011.

BIG HOLLYWOOD: Anything else you’d like to say?

ALLOTT: No, I think I am all set. Thanks, Joe!

Artists as diverse as Bing Crosby, Willie Nelson, and John Coltrane have recorded “Stardust.” The haunting, jazz-tinged melody is rightly regarded as one of the high water marks of American popular song. It’s been said that one sign of a truly great song is that it can be successfully interpreted in a variety of styles, and while there is certainly no need to prove that “Stardust” is one of the all-time great popular tunes, I’d like to invite you to check out a couple of examples. Here are links to snippets of two of my favorite versions of this tune, one by Louis Armstrong from 1931, and the other, from 1957, by Nat “King” Cole. The two arrangements are wildly different, and the performers themselves, of course, formidable, yet Hoagy’s melody is the real star of both versions.

It will be of interest to Big Hollywood readers to know that in addition to being a genius songwriter, Hoagy Carmichael was also politically lucid. He was, from the time of his Indiana upbringing, a conservative Republican. Carmichael’s son Hoagy Bix once said of his father’s political views:

“To Dad…FDR was a guy from a wealthy family who took other people’s money — particularly his — and just gave it away.”

Carmichael friend Helen Meinardi was even more blunt: “He hated Roosevelt.” After Hoagy’s raw-boned looks (Ian Fleming originally envisioned James Bond as resembling Hoagy) and endearing personality began to land him acting gigs in movies, Carmichael famously played his classic “Hong Kong Blues” in “To Have and Have Not” alongside Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall:

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At a party, after the reliably left-wing Bogart had shouted a “tirade of abuse” at Hoagy for Hoagy’s Republican politics, Hoagy heatedly invited Bogart, who Carmichael later wrote “was a bit confused politically” to step outside for a fight. According to Hoagy, Bogart had “A tendency…to be on the pink side in those days when it seemed fashionable to follow the far left line in Hollywood society.” (how little has changed…) Fortunately Hoagy’s wife, Ruth, broke up the fight.

During World War II the 40-something Carmichael, realizing that “there was little I could do but give the world something to hum,” went to work performing for the troops in over one hundred USO appearances at military installations. Hoagy was grateful to America, and to the troops, for giving him the chance to let his considerable talents blossom. This week, in honor of Hoagy’s birthday, we can take a moment to be grateful to Hoagy for giving America, and the world, something to hum.

Filmmaker Jordan Allott’s documentary, “Oscar’s Cuba” paints a compelling portrait of Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biscet, whom Armando Valladares, former Reagan administration Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and himself a former political prisoner of the Castro dictatorship, cites as the most important living figure in the struggle for Cuban liberty.

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In 1998 Doctor Biscet dared to publish a report in which he interviewed many Cuban mothers who testified that their infants had been born alive and then killed by the regime. The totalitarian regime that controls Cuba views problematic pregnancies or unhealthy infants as a threat to their much-touted low infant mortality rates. Cuba has the highest abortion rates in our hemisphere, with 6 in 10 pregnancies ending in abortion. Thanks to Dr Biscet, we now know that many of these abortions were not the choice of the mothers involved, that said abortions were coerced, and indeed that many of these infants were born alive…then terminated. When Dr. Biscet made this issue a matter of public record, he gave the regime a black eye. The regime was not going to let this go unpunished. Dr Biscet continued to speak out for human rights and democracy on the island, and he paid a price for it: in 1998 and 1999 he was arrested more than 20 times.

On March 18, 2003, seven years ago today, Dr Biscet was arrested along with more than 70 other dissidents in what has come to be called “la Primavera Negra,” the Black Spring of 2003.  He was sentenced to a 25-year sentence, which he is currently serving in the notorious Combinado del Este prison outside of Havana. Dr. Biscet spends much of his time in solitary confinement, incarcerated in an underground cell. Yet Biscet endures, and continues to defy the regime.

In the film, Gorki Aguila, lead singer of Cuban punk group Porno Para Ricardo, testifies that Biscet was “like a light” when he met him during his own imprisonment. When we see Biscet interviewed we, too, get a sense of this light, and of the God-given Grace that animates and sustains the deeply religious and avowedly non-violent Dr Biscet- Charisma in the true sense of the word: a divine gift.

We see Elsa Morejon, Oscar’s wife, preparing “la jaba,” the supply of food, water, toilet paper and other necessities that Elsa brings to Oscar when she is allowed to visit, only once every two months. Given that the food provided Oscar by the regime is largely inedible and perhaps even poisoned or drugged, la jaba is all that physically sustains Dr. Biscet.

“Oscar’s Cuba” shows us harrowing evidence of the repressive tactics of the Castros. We have known for years that the regime employs hand-picked mobs of citizens to terrify dissidents; in “Oscar’s Cuba” we see such a mob firsthand, gathered in front of Dr Biscet’s house. An old man yells, bizarrely, “down (abajo) with human rights!” “¡Abajo!” answers another viejo in a Che Guevara t-shirt. A younger man starts chanting, “¡Esta calle es de Fidel! ¡Esta calle es de Fidel!” (“This street belongs to Fidel!”) A couple of middle-aged women join in hysterically and soon the whole crowd is shouting the inane mantra. In a normal society, you would call the police to break up such an unhinged mob in front of your house. In Cuba, the police were the ones who organized and sent this mob in the first place. If the mob gets violent and physically beats you, there is nobody to call for help. In fact, the actions of the mob are considered those of model citizens by the regime.  This is a society that is upside down, crazy.

In Cuba, to shout something as inarguable and universal as “¡Que vivan los derechos humanos!” “Long live human rights!” becomes a deeply courageous and downright subversive act. Indeed, we do hear Dr. Biscet bravely cry out “¡Que vivan los derechos humanos!” just before he is forced into a police car and whisked away. We come away from Mr Allott’s film with an almost palpable sense not only of the courage and determination of Biscet, but of the fear the regime has of him. Biscet knows that he faces a thoroughly ruthless adversary, and yet remains undaunted. What’s most striking about the man is his hope. Not a naive hope, but rather a serene faith that bad ideas fail, and good ideas win.

“Oscar’s Cuba” suggests that the hour of that victory of good ideas over bad may be at hand: Ambassador Valladares affirms that every day more and more Cubans lose their fear of the dictatorship, and begin speaking up.

Beautifully scored by Emmy and Grammy Award-winning Cuban jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, “Oscar’s Cuba” will screen on Sunday, March 21, 2010, from 5:00pm – 7:30pm in Hollywood, California. Cuban-born actress Maria Conchita Alonso will host the event.

For more information on Sunday’s screening of “Oscar’s Cuba” visit their website and Facebook page.

On the morning of Febrary 13th, 2010, the most profligate President in the recent history of the Republic attacked the last decade as being “a decade of profligacy.” In fact, the current POTUS’ two budgets were by far the most profligate of the last ten years. This is a textbook case of what psychologists call “projection.” Tío Chano could not let this vile calumny stand!

People have been saying to me for months, “Joe, where’s Tío Chano?” Referring, of course, to my Uncle Luciano.

Well, the short answer is, I didn’t know. For as long as I have known Tío Chano, that is to say, for my entire life, Tío Chano has disappeared for months at a time. Nobody in the family knows where he goes, and we have learned not to ask.

At the end of August 2009 Tío Chano asked me for a ride to LAX. I dropped him off at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at 2:30 AM on August 30th. We heard nothing from him until less than a week ago.

The phone rang at 1:30 AM.

“Hello?”

“Pepito!”

“Tío Chano, good to hear your voice! What’s up?”

“Nothing I can talk about. Can you pick me up at the airport?”

“When?”

“Right now.”

So I drove out to LAX and picked up Tío Chano. In the car he asked me, “Did you see the State of the Union address?” “Yeah.” “Que descaro, chico,” he mumbled. And then he fell asleep. When we got home Tío Chano headed up to the guest room, locked the door and did not come out for three days. The day before yesterday he emerged from the guest room and made himself a steaming pot of Café Bustelo, which he poured down his throat in quick, sweet demitasse shots.

“Voy al cine,” he announced. “I’m going to the movies.”

He came back 45 minutes later, disgusted. He asked if he could use the video camera, and headed back up to the guest room.

Somehow, I knew he was going to be disappointed.

I’m not buying it. I think Tío Chano secretly loves the movies, even when he despises them. Last weekend he saw “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and even though he says it was terrible, he’s started reading our collection of “Harry Potter” books. He insists they’re ridiculous but he’s already halfway through the second book.

He’s also been muttering a lot lately about Judge Sonia Sotomayor and the United States Supreme Court. I hope you enjoy his take on these issues.

He was so excited (agitated?) when he got back that he asked if he could make a video of his impressions of “Transformers 2″ and post it on Big Hollywood. “I don’t know, Tío, that movie’s been out for a couple of weeks now, Big Hollywood is a blog, it’s all about what’s happening right now.” Tío Chano assured me that he’d find a way to make it current. So I relented. Why not? I hadn’t planned on posting anything this week anyway. So, here he is, my Tío Chano. Oh, and by the way: Spoiler alert!

This being that anniversary, it’s a good day to recollect how much passion, honor, and gritty philosophy went into those old Westerns, how much they can still teach us today, and how much good the American Western has done not just for America, but for the world: the image of Cooper walking alone down that dusty black and white street is a reminder that sometimes when you do good, you have to do it alone.

So God Bless all those brave Polish souls who twenty years ago dared to defy their communist overlords and do the right thing, setting in motion a chain of events that liberated millions, and will yet liberate millions more. And God Bless America, and God Bless Gary Cooper. And damn, what a great hat.

Late 1950s, Toledo, Ohio, USA.

The Hero, rugged, blue-eyed, blonde-haired, is a searcher, misunderstood by family and friends. He is a freewheeling, Kerouacian type who in his twenties never kept a job or stayed in one place for long. He did a stint in the US Army: stationed in Japan, he went AWOL, got himself time in the brig and a dishonorable discharge. The Hero tried working on a ranch, scratch. Joined the circus. Nope, not a fit. Everywhere the Hero goes, he confronts the questions: Why am I here? What do I do? Now 30-ish, he needs a purpose in life.

The Hero

One day the Hero learns that another American, a close friend from his Army days, has been murdered by goons of the corrupt dictator of an island nation. The Hero heads down to the Island and joins the rebels to fight against the dictator that killed his buddy. For perhaps the first time in his life, the Hero finds someplace where he is needed, and where he can make a difference. He’s had freedom all his life and has not known what to do with it; he finally finds his purpose: helping others fight for their freedom. The Hero’s military training proves invaluable to the rebels, among whom he eventually rises to the rank of Comandante, the highest rank in the rebel army. He falls in love with, and marries, Olga, a lovely 22-year-old rebel who is as fiery and committed as he is, and they have two daughters. The rebels triumph over the dictator and at first the Hero and his wife are happy in their new life, but the leader of the rebels in due time reveals himself to be a worse dictator than the one who preceded him, turning to the far-right and establishing not just a new authoritarian dictatorship, but an out-and-out totalitarian dictatorship.

The Hero sees that friends of his from the former rebels are being arrested, imprisoned and even executed for speaking out against the totalitarian tack of the new dictator. The Hero and Olga begin stashing away guns, preparing for the day when the disciples of the new dictator come for them. The Hero is now a man without a country, as he has been stripped of his American citizenship by the U.S. State Department, a bureaucracy that does not understand that the Hero was fighting for freedom and justice all along, that the Hero never stopped being an American. The Hero and Olga are captured, dragged from their home and separated. The Hero is given a trial but the verdict was ordained before the court even convened. He writes Olga a last letter, which will not reach her until more than ten years after his death. “You have been my love, my happiness, my companion in life and in my thoughts in my hour of death…do not let your life become lifeless and sad,” he pleads with her.

The Hero stands in front of a firing squad. By most accounts, the new dictator and his younger brother are present at the execution; by some accounts, so is a rather creepy, long-haired fellow who speaks in the sing-song accent of a faraway country.

The executioner orders the Hero to kneel; the Hero answers:

“I kneel before no man.”

They riddle one of the Hero’s knees with machine-gun fire. He staggers but props himself up on one leg. They riddle the other knee with machine-gun fire, and only now does the Hero fall to his knees.

They fire at his shoulders and knock him onto his back.

The executioner, carrying the pistol with which he will deliver the kill shot, approaches the dying Hero and taunts him, “See, we made you kneel.”

The Hero’s last words: “I didn’t kneel.”

The executioner, knowing he can deliver death but not dishonor to the Hero, angrily fires multiple shots into the Hero’s skull, destroying the Hero’s noble face.

Olga is imprisoned for twelve awful years. The dictatorship inflicts savage beatings and solitary confinement upon her, but they cannot make her kneel, either. She never accepts “reeducation,” even though it would make her life much easier. Her feet are firmly planted. She comes to be regarded as a leader, a woman deeply committed to her principles, by her fellow prisoners.

Finally, Olga is released. After several years she leaves her country and finds her way to Toledo, and makes a new home there. She remarries, and begins a new life, but remains committed to obtaining justice for the Hero, eventually winning the restoration of his U.S. citizenship, indeed, winning a statement from the Department of State that the Hero’s citizenship had never been lost at all. She continues to this day to plead for the release of the Hero’s mortal remains to the United States.

Fifty years later, the dictator and his brother are still in power; it’s evident to all but the most dogmatic and foolish that the Hero was right to turn against the new dictator.

It would make a hell of a movie, wouldn’t it?

It’s a true story, by the way, except for one thing: the new dictator did not turn to the far-right, he turned to the far-left. Maybe that’s why this jaw-dropping tale hasn’t been made into a movie yet.

The island nation is Cuba, the now-not-so-new dictator is Fidel Castro, and the Hero’s name is William Morgan. He was executed in Cuba on March 11, 1961.

“I loved him intensely,” Olga told me. Now in her early seventies, Olga Morgan Goodwin is still radiant, and beautiful. William Morgan’s fight was ended by a coward’s bullets; Olga’s fight continues.

I had the extraordinary honor of observing the First Congress of Cuban Political Prisoners (Primer Congreso del Presidio Político Cubano), held from the 3rd to the 5th of April 2009 in Miami, and that’s where I met Olga, who continues to lobby the Castro government to release William’s remains so she can properly bury them in his (and now her) hometown of Toledo.

Will this epic tale ever make it to the big screen? It should have been done a long time ago. Had the movie been made in the 1960s, Steve McQueen would have made an excellent William Morgan. Had the tragedy of the Cuban Revolution happened thirty years before it did, the go-to guy to play Morgan would have been Gary Cooper. My wife thinks DiCaprio could play Morgan. Great actor, certainly, but I don’t quite see it. Matt Damon, maybe, but he’s a committed lefty and probably would not want to participate in a film in which the Castros and Che Guevara (the long-haired fellow at the execution) were portrayed in the harsh negative light of historical fact.

To me, the reason the story of William Morgan has not been made into a movie is that it does not fit Hollywood’s ideological narrative. I have no doubt that if William Morgan had been shot by Pinochet, Hollywood would have made this movie a long time ago. They’d probably be remaking it by now. However, the villain in this story is not some right-winger, and not some American multi-national corporation, but an America-hating, communist tyrant. And the Hero is a man who believes, perhaps naively by Hollywood’s standards, in Democracy. Nah, Hollywood will never touch this story.

Or will it? There has been talk of a William Morgan movie in the recent past, but Olga has not been consulted. To attempt to make a Morgan movie and omit Olga would be like making “Gone With The Wind” omitting Scarlett O’Hara. It would never work. The story of William Morgan is as much a love story as it is an adventure/war story. To omit the love story would be to make half a movie- and box office receipts would reflect that. Anyone wanting to film the story of William Morgan needs to start by talking with Olga.

Unlike Soderbergh’s awful “Che,” this would be a Cuba movie that could actually make some money. If Hollywood wants to do this movie right, Olga Morgan Goodwin has quite a story to tell. William’s own words, in his letter to Olga: “I only ask that someday the truth be known.”

Amen, William.

William and Olga Morgan