Dame la mano (Give Me Your Hand)

The rumba as the most important character in this new documentary of Heddy Honigmann will cause ‘a tingling feeling from the head to the toe’, portraying Cuban exiles living in New York – who literally speak with their body, for whom dancing and making music is a way of living. Once a week they gather at ‘La Esquina Habanera’, referred to by connoisseurs as one of America’s best kept secrets. Through musical encounters with myriad colourful patrons, Honigmann reveals both the joie the vivre and the survival instincts which characterise the Cuban emigres. As one comments, “My best medicine is drowning in music. I keep on distracting my enemy by dancing”.