“Pure unbridled stoke, Havana Libre is a deeply moving story you won’t want to miss.” - The Inertia

“Havana Libre was a breath of fresh air for us to watch as Cuban-Americans.” - Startup Cuba TV

“A magnificent, beautifully shot film…about fighting adversity, whatever the cost.” - Film Threat

“This is the story of a country where surfing was illegal a few years ago . And the few who dared to surf did so on homemade boards, in constant fear of fines, imprisonment, or worse.” - Surf Session

“When Frank Gonzalez says if you want to surf in Cuba, “you have to invent something,” he’s not being figurative. For him, it meant figuring out how to carve boards from recycled material, learning the sport itself from what magazines or videos they could find, and not getting stopped by the authorities.” - The Missoulan

Director BIO

Corey McLean is a documentary film director, musician, and artist currently based out of Los Angeles. His pathway to becoming a filmmaker has been an unexpected journey dictated by story rather than by design. Growing up on the coast of Maine, McLean, Dunham, and Brown all started pointing cameras around the age of 9, making films about skiing and skateboarding to avoid boredom in the woods. Now, over two decades later, the lifelong friends are still chasing more meaningful stories around the world. Having shot amidst the Ebola crisis in Liberia to the streets of Argentina, to the shores of Cuba, Mclean has developed a knack for finding the endearing qualities of the human spirit in the face of hardship. He has had short form work featured at Mountain Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, and by the WSL, as well as writing in Good Magazine, The Inertia, The Adventure Journal, and The Surfer’s Journal. His book, The Cuba Unknown, was published in 2017. Havana Libre is his first feature film.

Director statement

When we took our first production trip to Cuba, in the spring of 2016, we embedded ourselves for three months with Frank and Yaya to shoot a short film about surfboard shaping. We had read a New York Times article from 2013 that discussed the topic, and thought of it as a way to spend time in a country that we always wanted to explore. Those three months proved to be revolutionary, both for our characters and the country. The events that unfolded (Open borders, Obama’s visit, Rolling Stones concert, Frank’s daughter’s birth, Yaya’s transformation into a leader in the surf community), spoke to something far greater than surfboard shaping.

We realized quickly that through these characters, we were getting a unique impression of life in Cuba that was so hard to resonate with in newspaper headlines. It was also abundantly clear how American policies to embargo Cuba economically and prevent travel to the country hurt these individuals, far more than helping them. We realized surfing could be something of a guide to help viewers of all backgrounds understand this on a human level. With this in mind, we decided to pursue a feature and have continued following our characters through an increasingly complicated time within Cuba and between our countries. In an age of political turmoil and radical headlines, this human story is more important to share than ever.