Prepare to learn a thing or two about Cuba and its underground awesomeness. In Rotilla: Si Dios Quiere y El Partido lo Permite, a new documentary by Santiago “El Pibe” Fabregas (produced by Filmaciones de la Ciudad and Sicario TV), we see a different side of Cuba, maybe the side they don’t want you to see. We’re shown Rotilla, a beach-side festival founded by Michael Matos that brings together the best and less-than mainstream, local hip hop and electronica artists. You get to see the guys and gals on the grind get their spotlight (like Explosión Suprema, Richi Pellicer, and Lica Tito), because at the end of the day, Rotilla is about the common man, the average josé.
It’s three days, three stages, 14,000 people (students, college kids, rastafaris, religious folk, e-tards and the like), of non-stop partying, just a big orgy of music heads, so to speak. Some call it the Latin American Woodstock, but it’s more a mix of Bonnaroo, Burning Man, and Electric Zoo, all rolled into one grime fest. It’s a self-labeled “rave en la playa,” a movement of unbridled libertinage to prove that Cuba is more than just “ron, tabaco, mulata, y salsa.”