Havana Curveball

It seemed so simple at first. The filmmakers were making a home movie about their son Mica’s bar mitzvah project, which was to send baseball equipment to underprivileged kids in Cuba. But life threw Mica a HAVANA CURVEBALL, and the story turned into this heartwarming film about a naïve boy who grows into a politically aware young man. Mica is inspired by the fact that Cuba harbored his grandfather when he fled Nazi Europe. Now his well-intentioned 13-year-old ideals come smack up against the U.S. embargo on imports to Cuba. After two years of research, writing letters to his senator, and meeting with activists and an attorney, he boards a plane to Havana with 200 pounds of baseball gear. But the Cuban kids’ reaction isn’t what he expected, and Mica is left wondering whether his efforts, or anybody’s efforts in life, are worth it. Thank goodness young people keep deciding they are. (In English and Spanish with subtitles) – B.B.