Los Angeles, CA – April 6, 2018 – “Just off Miami’s busy Calle Ocho, the thoroughfare that is the beating cultural heart of the city’s Cuban community, there rises a splendid ceiba tree whose roots erupt from the ground like waves from the sea, and whose vast branches throw shade far to either side,” opened The Guardian contributor Michael Deibert.
Deibert highlights and makes sense of Miami’s immense multicultural diversity, as it historically has remained a place where newcomers try to construct a new life. Residing in Miami on and off since the mid-1990s, Deibert divulges that unlike any other destination, “Miami always seems to offer the singular trick of providing some of the efficiency and convenience of living in the US while never seeming entirely a part of it”.
With an array of accents on Miami’s streets, the city has become home to thousands of Latin American nationalities including Haitians, Mexicans, Jamaicans, Brazilians and Colombians. In addition, Miami contains a substantial number of Persians, Orthodox Jews, Russians and Indians.
Photo from The Guardian. Caption: Miami is now home to thousands of Latin Americans, with sizeable populations of Russians, Indians, Persians and Orthodox Jews. Photograph: Alamy.
Initially, several think of areas such as South Beach when thinking about Miami due to its large size as a popular destination spot with an emphasis on culture and nightlife. However, Miami is actually made up of several semi-independent small cities. “Perhaps more representative of the city than South Beach today are the northern reaches of Miami Beach, an area that is still home to many working-class residents despite spiraling property prices, where the lilting, almost Italianate sound of Argentine Spanish mixes with the caressing sounds of Brazilian Portuguese in the bodegas and on the beach,” observed Deibert.
As well, Miami as a refuge and city as a whole has allowed both Cubans and Haitians to give a profound, lasting impact on Miami’s cultural life over the last few decades. United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Armando Valladares, who previously spent 22 years in a Cuban prison, stated, “The Cubans have demonstrated their ability and their quality of work here. It’s a unique case in the history of the United States where the identity of a city was born, in a sense, in another country,” cited Deibert. He also mentioned famous Cuban poet and anthropologist, Lydia Cabrera, who spent a majority of her life in Miami as “one of the world’s most foremost authorities on Afro-Cuban Religion” (Deibert), donating her collection of works to the university.
Essential to Miami’s cultural and social diversity, Deibert highlighted Little Haiti, which has stretched over the once-neglected Northeast 2nd Avenue. In the heart of the Haitian immigrant community, surrounded by bright, vivid street murals by local Miami artists. Little Haiti celebrates the culture within Miami, through the opening of the Little Haiti Cultural Center, the O’Miami poetry festival that brings Cuban cultural groups to Miami, annual Friday-night Rara Lakaya band marches, use of cultural musical instruments (for example, plangent bamboo vaksin trumpets) and outdoor monthly concerts.
Photo from The Guardian. Caption: A mural in Miami’s Little Haiti neighbourhood. Photograph: Frederic Soltan/Corbis.
Haitian painter, Edouard Duval Carrié, whom is noted for his extraordinary paining of Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in a wedding dress moved from Paris to Miami in 1992. Describing Miami then as a cultural dessert, current day Miami has significantly grown culturally. Citing Carrié who stated, “This is the doorway to the United States […] The particularity of Miami is that it has this very ebullient immigration that makes it quite fascinating.”
The blend of dialects, cultures and accents that walk the streets of Miami have had a major influence on the city’s culture, shown through Blademil Grullon’s(‘Love and Reality’, ‘Fade Away’) urban, Miami street film, ‘A MIAMI LOVE STORY’ – the first-ever film to be released as a national theatrical with the collaboration of Haitians and Dominicans.
Raw and real, ‘A MIAMI LOVE STORY’ tells the provocative tale of two young teenagers, Sandy (Fuego) and Flo (Lexi Delarosa), whose love is banned due to their cultural differences as a Haitian and a Dominican. Shedding light on this longtime cultural conflict, ‘A MIAMI LOVE STORY’ conveys that even in the midst of struggles, love and peace can conquer all.
‘A MIAMI LOVE STORY’ spreads the message of and harmony between cultures with a diverse cast that has first-hand experienced the cultural clash between the Haitians and Dominicans, including the film’s score by Haitian Actor / Composer / Soundtrack artist, Wyclef Jean and soundtrack from Cuban and Miami-born soundtrack global sensation, Armando “Pitbull” Perez and Miguel A. Duran, Jr., a.k.a. “Fuego” as the lead of Sandy, who is a Dominican Republican rapper signed to Pitbull’s record label, Mr. 305 Inc.
‘A MIAMI LOVE STORY’ is a story is about forgiving the past and moving into the future. Be a part of the cultural mending and forgiving by joining TriCoast Entertainment and Florida Film House’s exclusive U.S. theatrical for ‘A MIAMI LOVE STORY’ beginning in New York on April 20th. With several U.S. major cities on deck, please contact jenna@tricoast.com for press inquiries.
‘A MIAMI LOVE STORY’ will be available on VOD platforms beginning April 16th Watch the trailer for ‘A MIAMI LOVE STORY’ here: https://vimeo.com/215912020 and for more information, please visit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3727362/.
The film stars a wonderful cast, including Miguel “Fuego” Duran (Soundtrack of ‘Puerto Ricans in Paris’, written/ performed ‘Mami Mami’), Lexi Delarosa (‘Love and Reality’, ‘Zoe911’, ‘Mattie: The Discovery’), Paul Antoine (‘Love and Reality’), and Mitch Lemos (director of ‘A Haunting Expense’, ‘Fearless Heart’, ‘Fade Away’). Producer Marco Mall is the founder of the Urban Film Festival in Miami and runner of full-service production company based in the Wynwood section of Miami, Florida Film House and is credited for ‘Zoe911’, ‘Kevin Gates Short Film’, ‘Swingers Anonymous’.
A MIAMI LOVE STORY (2017, 80 min.) Written and Directed by Blademil Grullon. Editors: Tony Ciccone, Blademil Grullon, Jokes Yanes. Cinematographer: Luis Valverde. Original Music: Wyclef Jean and Alberto Vaccarino. US, English. Florida Film House, TriCoast Entertainment.
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Florida Film House.
About TriCoast Entertainment:
A new home for story-driven American films, TriCoast Entertainment is a full service media company that creates, produces, manages and distributes unique and unusual entertainment. Bringing together filmmakers, distributors, financiers, and technologists, TriCoast Entertainment embraces change by redefining the production and distribution model for indie filmmakers, providing them with low cost tools, financing, and worldwide theatrical and digital distribution, along with market feedback and storytelling opportunities tools, financing, and worldwide theatrical and digital distribution, along with market feedback and storytelling opportunities.
Founded by CEOs: Strathford Hamilton and Marcy Levitas Hamilton.
Media Contact
Company Name: TriCoast Entertainment
Contact Person: Jenna Wilen
Email: Send Email
Phone: 310 458 7707
Address:11124 Washington Blvd
City: Culver City
State: CA
Country: United States
Website: http://www.tricoastworldwide.com