ULTIMATE DOCS COMPETITION

638 WAYS TO KILL CASTRO

UK, 2006, 75 min., English, Spanish

Director: Dollan Cannell
Producer: Kari Lia
Cinematography: Petra Graf, Michael Timney
Editing: Olivier Huddleston
Music: Samuel Sim
Sound: Bob Jackson
Production company: Silver River Production
Print Source:
Silver River
Brook House
2-16 Torrington Place
London
WC1E 7HN
Tel.: +44 20 7307 2720
Fax: +44 20 7907 3411
E-mail: info@silverriver.tv


638 Ways To Kill Castro

For nearly half a century everyone from the CIA to Cubans-in-exile in Miami have been plotting to kill Fidel Castro. None of them have succeeded, but as this revealing and snappy film shows, many of the schemes hatched to end the dictator’s life would be deemed too outrageous for even a James Bond movie. Fabian Escalante, one of Castro’s security men has calculated that there have been a total of 638 attempts on El Commandante’s life – most brainstormed by the CIA - and eight of them have been singled out in this witty and informative doc. From college chums with a grudge to femme fatales and from poisoned cigars to sinister bomb plantings those who had a mind to do Castro in stopped at nothing to figure out how to get close enough to pull it off. It is even rumored that John F Kennedy asked Bond-creator Ian Fleming for his advice on how to oust Castro. But as this smart and layered doc suggests, these focused missions have not been without disastrous consequences, from innocent bloodshed to the US government’s rumored affiliation with terrorists.

Dollan Cannell is a documentary director working from London. His work includes both observational stories and polemical pieces, filmed mainly in Africa and the developing world, or about social and political issues in Britain. In 2002 he won an Emmy for "Exodus", a film made with Sorious Samura about the journeys of immigrants travelling from West Africa to Europe.

Filmography (selected):

638 Ways To Kill Castro (2006);
The Importance of Being Famous (2003);
Exodus (2000);
Walking on Ashes (2000).

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