Ghost Town to Havana (in English) (1 1/2 hrs long)
We have an extra SPECIAL TREAT for you this month. The actual Oakland coach from Ghost Town to Havana, Roscoe Bryant and his wife, will be joining us to speak about the film. The film is 1-1/2 hours, so we will extend our usual time which is two hours to 2-1/2 hours i.e. 2 to 4:30.
Film Description:
Two teams. Two countries. One game. A life rampant, street level story of mentorship and ordinary, everyday heroism in tough circumstances. An inner city coach's son, estranged in his youth from his father, spends five years on ball fields in inner city Oakland and Havana, following the lives of two extraordinary youth baseball coaches: Nicolas Reyes, a 61-year-old Afro-Cuban who coaches in a Havana neighborhood that is rich in community but struggling desperately economically, and Roscoe Bryant, a 46-year-old African-American man who coaches in a troubled Oakland neighborhood wracked by three decades of gang violence. The filmmaker introduces the coaches on videotape and Coach Roscoe vows he will take his players to Cuba to play Nicolas' team one day. Two years of US/Cuba sanctions and red tape later, Coach Roscoe and 9 players fly to Havana to play Coach Nicolas’ team. For the next week, the boys and coaches eat, dance, swim, argue, tease, and play baseball together. The wary, street-smart, Ghost Town boys gradually warm to the fun-loving friendship of their Afro-Cuban hosts. Baseball! Girls! Fun! Real friendships form. Then Roscoe receives a fateful phone call from home. Right fielder Chris Fletcher’s stepfather has been murdered on an Oakland street. Ghost Town to Havana is contemporary in content but as old as the Greeks thematically: the human struggle to wrest life from death.
Please do not try to register on this website. Instead, please RSVP to mmarigold100@aol.com for location and to reserve or cancel a comfortable seat. (Seating limited to 18.) Since there is limited seating, people MUST email Mary Goldstein to reserve a space and also to cancel if they find they can’t attend.
*Please email Mary for address information and any questions about access.
When you come please avoid fragrances in personal care products as well as in laundry products.
Feel free to bring snacks to share (except popcorn - some folks are allergic).