Sons of Cuba

A crew follows three prospective kids through Cuba's boxing schools. We see the tough times they have living in financial difficulty. One kid is the son of a famous boxer who stayed in Cuba only to seem to be living in rather humble conditions. The kids cry when they don't win, one struggles with weight, they all seem to struggle with parental strife like divorce or absent parenting. So why didn't I care about their plight.

Hoop Dreams followed two key kids trying to make it in the US via the hopes of basketball. In that documentary, I found myself feeling connected to the families, the games, their lives. Yes, it was forced drama but that is often what documentaries do.

In Sons of Cuba, I really didn't understand why the film-makers were interested in these kids. If they didn't care, why should I? Yes, I felt for the kids when they were struggling, but the editors and film would too quickly pull away from the real drama and focus on the kids and distract me with other material - the coach, the shaky shots of the homes, the streets, the neighborhood. Edited in a more fluid manner, this could have given texture to the boys' stories. Instead it just pulled me away from felling like I knew anything about the kids and their world. It all just felt like veneer, slightly better than "reality" and much less manipulative but still not enough to keep me from wanting to nap.