Press Kit: Revolution's Daughter

Screenings

Festival Premieres

World Premiere Documentary Achievement Award

Miami Film Festival, Official Competition

Friday, April 10, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Koubek Theater, 2705 SW 3rd St, Miami, FL 33135

Second Screening

Miami Film Festival

Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 3:00 PM
FIU Rafael Diaz-Balart Law Building

Southwest Premiere

Coming Late April 2026

Venue and date announcement forthcoming. Check back soon.

Why Now

Cuba Is in Freefall

Rolling blackouts, food shortages, mass emigration. The world watched the 2021 uprising, then looked away. This film doesn't look away.

The urgency is the story. Cuba's infrastructure is collapsing in real time. Families are separated by an ocean and a regime that won't let go. The voices in this film are speaking now because the window to speak may not stay open.

This is not a historical documentary. It is a present-tense portrait of a community in crisis, told by the people living it.

"To me, the most important thing is that the conversation about Cuba is alive."

— Alina Fernández, Executive Producer

Director's Statement

From the Director

I often say of myself and my films: we are the lighthouse, not the light. The light shines through us so that others may see.

The stories find me. I can't force it. Half the time I'd be hard pressed to tell you why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm just along for the ride.

With my film Brian & The Boz, if you knew who The Boz was, the 1980s college football star briefly turned cultural phenomenon, you thought you knew the story. I thought I knew the story. A jerk who got what was coming to him. When they first asked for my advice, I thought: what are these guys thinking? Then they asked me to direct, and every preconceived notion I had dropped. Immediately. Because I was being called. And when I stayed open, I found out he was so much more. That's what happens when you let the story arrive on its own terms. You carve away until you set the angel free.

With Alina Fernández, the headline writes itself: Castro's daughter. Three syllables that tell you everything and nothing.

And for some reason, she trusted me. Entrusted me with something sacred. Then others did too.

This film isn't a biography of Alina. It's a chorus. Revolution's Daughter gathers the voices of Cuban-Americans who carry exile in their bodies: artists, writers, mothers, musicians. People for whom the question of identity isn't theoretical. It's the air in the room at every family dinner, every phone call that can't be made, every song sung in a language that belongs to a place you can't go back to.

Gloria Estefan. Nilo Cruz. Alina herself. And voices you haven't heard yet, because no one thought to ask them.

I once questioned whether I had the right to tell a story of Cuban exiles when I am not myself Cuban, nor Latin, nor even from South Florida. I am a vessel. I go where I am called.

The Cuban-American story is one of the great unfinished American stories: a community that remade itself in exile while never fully letting go of what was taken. That tension between holding on and moving forward is the most human thing I know.

I've been making films about it my whole career. I just didn't know it until now.

Thaddeus D. Matula, Director

Key Subjects

The Voices

Alina Fernández

Fidel Castro's daughter. Escaped Cuba. Writer, activist, radio host. The film's anchor.

Gloria Estefan

Grammy-winning artist. Cuban exile. Global icon.

Nilo Cruz

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. Cuban-born. Explores exile and identity through theater.

José Bedia

Internationally acclaimed Cuban-born artist. Exploring ritual, mythology, and cultural memory.

Pablo Cano

Master marionette-maker. Cuban-born artist preserving cultural traditions through puppetry.

Ricardo Pau-Llosa

Poet, art critic. Cuban-born voice on exile, identity, and Latin American art.

Margarita Cano

Painter, curator, and arts director at the Miami-Dade Public Library System for three decades. Her programs championed Latin American and African-American artists across South Florida.

Aurora Molina

Fiber artist. Cuban-born. Her work weaves exile, memory, and cultural identity.

Bonco Quiñongo

Cuban comedian. Beloved for his iconic children's show in Cuba.

Dr. Lauren Peña

Scholar of Cuban-American identity and cultural memory. University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Jorge Duany

Former Director, Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. Professor Emeritus of Anthropology.

Daniela Ferrara

Activist. Cuban-American voice of a new generation.

Synopsis

Alina Fernández grew up in Havana not knowing she was Fidel Castro's daughter, an open secret kept from her alone. Years before escaping Cuba and rebuilding her life in Miami, she made a choice that would define her: to speak out, and to keep speaking out. She calls it the only thing she ever really did, the one act she refused to shrink from. REVOLUTION'S DAUGHTER weaves Alina's defiance into the broader fabric of Miami's Cuban exile community, where artists and storytellers across generations carry the inheritance of revolution in their own ways, exploring identity, belonging, and what it costs to use your voice when silence would be easier.

Film Details

Runtime

85 minutes

Language

English, Spanish

Aspect Ratio

2.39:1

Year

2025

Country

United States

Film Credits

Directed by Thaddeus D. Matula
Produced by John Martinez O'Felan & Thaddeus D. Matula
Producers Joe Lamy, Allen Gilmer, Javier Gonzalez
Executive Producers Alina Fernández, Allen Gilmer & Riki Rushing, Joseph S. Lamy
Co-Producer Suzette Laboy
Post-Production Producer King Hollis
Director of Photography Logan Fulton
Editor Gigi Cone Welch
Entertainment Attorney Larry Waks

About the Director

Thaddeus D. Matula

Thaddeus D. Matula is a Peabody and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. His ESPN 30 for 30 film Pony Excess won the Peabody Award and debuted as ESPN's most-watched documentary premiere, followed by his second entry in the series, the Emmy-winning Brian & The Boz. His work spans ESPN, the NFL, BBC, PBS, and The GRAMMYs.

His 2023 documentary Into the Spotlight earned 20+ international awards, including Best Texas Feature at Dallas International Film Festival and Best Documentary Feature at Sedona International Film Festival.

Revolution's Daughter marks Matula's move from American mythology to global stakes: the same instinct for finding the human fault lines inside larger-than-life stories, now turned toward a culture fighting to be heard. He is simultaneously finishing a feature documentary in an active war zone in Ukraine (SIRKO) and developing HOME & AWAY with the Baseball Hall of Fame.