Nuclear Bomb Hits Havana

Brian De Palma's in a snit over his epic bomb 'Redacted' tanking nationwide, and is now screening it at the Karl Marx theater in Havana.

But he's pouting because he couldn't get a visa from the State Department to travel to Cuba.

Poor thing.

HAVANA - Washington's trade embargo bars almost all Americans from coming to Cuba — but it can't keep U.S. films out.

Twenty-one full-length U.S. movies and 22 experimental American shorts are being shown as part of Havana's international film festival, which began Tuesday and runs through Dec. 14 at 23 movie theaters and video clubs across the city.

Most are independent flicks focusing on illegal immigration and the problems Latinos face in America, but movies by Hollywood heavyweights Brian De Palma and David Lynch are also being screened.

How about a movie showing the plight of Latinos in Cuba?

"You make an American film and you never expect it to be shown in Cuba," said Vivien Lesnik Weisman, a Cuban-American who will travel to Havana next week to present her documentary, "The Man of Two Havanas."

Finished prints of the U.S. films were sent to Cuba through Mexico or Canada, or through European distribution companies. But the U.S. government makes it quite difficult for American directors to present their work on the island.

De Palma's "Redacted," a fictional retelling of the real-life rape and murder of a teenage girl by U.S. soldiers, opened the festival at Havana's swank Karl Marx theater Tuesday night, but only after one of its Canadian producers read an apologetic statement blaming the director's absence on U.S. authorities.

"It seems my State Department could not offer me a visa," De Palma said.

Also showing is Lynch's powerful yet plot-devoid "Inland Empire."

Calls and e-mails to Lynch's representatives asking if he had sought permission from U.S. authorities to travel to Cuba weren't immediately returned.

The U.S. Treasury Department issues licenses allowing U.S. artists to travel to Cuba for public performances, but Bill Martinez, a San Francisco immigration attorney and producer, said there is reportedly a two-year backlog of performers seeking such permission.

"The numbers of U.S. (performers) are significantly down," Martinez said.

In Washington, a Treasury Department spokesman wouldn't comment on pending requests for licenses.