US Congressional candidate Kelly Kirschner and the Cuban film “Nobody”
HAVANA TIMES – The first time I heard that Kelly Kirschner was running for Congress in the United States, it struck me as strange. Perhaps because, in my mind, I had always associated him with his work at Eckerd College and in Guatemala.
I learned more in 2019, when Cuban visual artist Coco Fusco invited Miguel Coyula and myself to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. I had worked as an actress in Miguel’s short film Vivir en junio con la lengua afuera [“To live in June with your tongue out”]. At the same gathering, we also screened his 2017 film Nadie [“Nobody”]
The documentary revolves around a duel between two men over an idea—the poet Rafael Alcides, Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.
After the screening, Kelly approached us. He was planning to take groups of people connected to Eckerd to Cuba and wanted to schedule a screening there of the film Nadie.
The documentary had not been well regarded by the Cuban government. After it won an award at the Dominican Republic Global Film Festival, we were subjected to a police raid that prevented the screening of Nadie at the private gallery El Círculo in Havana.
We had talked to the Ringling audience about all this. Given the history, we then discussed with Kelly the possibility of finding an independent venue to show the film to the group in Cuba. If we didn’t promote it through our public social media accounts, we thought we could make the screening happen.
The groups at Eckerd received the film with a mixture of fascination and horror. On the one hand, they found Alcides’s perspective on those early years of the Revolution beautiful; on the other, they felt uncomfortable with all the darkness surrounding both the film and us. Not only for showing the film, but for defending it.
In February 2024, we were invited to present Michal Coyula’s recent film Crónicas del absurdo [“Chronicles of the absurd”] in Ismailia, Egypt. Just before leaving for the airport, we had scheduled another performance of Nadie for a new group from Eckerd, at Espacio Irreverente, under the auspices of Eva Gonzalez. Everything seemed to be going well.
Upon arriving in Egypt, we learned that the group had been prevented from leaving Havana. The tour guide had already expressed his disagreement with the screening of the film and had decided to distance himself during the showing of Nadie.
Tour guides also serve as intermediaries between groups of foreigners and the Cuban government. After we reported the police intervention, very few US tour organizers dared to schedule our films in Havana again.
But Kelly seemed convinced that he wasn’t doing anything that should be prevented. His perspective was clear: he was interested in screening the film, precisely because it was a time when Cuban society was being shaken up by artists and independent venues.
Even after the incident with State Security in 2024, he resubmitted his program for the next group he was bringing to Cuba, and once again included Nadie.
Things could have gotten out of hand, but he chose to keep his program. And, I repeat, without excluding either the film or us.
Some years later, Kelly Kirschner has reappeared on Florida’s political scene. After having been a Commissioner, and Mayor of Sarasota he has opted to enter the race for US Representative in Florida’s 16th District. He won the Democratic primary in August and is now his party’s candidate in the November general elections.
I’ve been following this campaign through his social media site, and I hope he wins.
For anyone interested, his campaign website is: kellykirschner.com; and his Instagram profile can be found at: www.instagram.com/kirschnerforcongress?igsi=MWZza295d2h3Z204cQ==
Read more from Lynn Cruz here on Havana Times