A collaborative documentary shot in vérité style, Luchando follows the lives of four Cuban sex workers who each set out to resolve their touching—and at times humorous—predicaments in Havana.
Shot over the course of sixteen months, the film provides an unflinching, first-ever look at a growing community of sex workers trying to make a living in Havana’s homoerotic sex trade.
The story takes place in the last days of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, a post-communist nation torn between the ideals of socialist equality and a rapidly growing division between the rich and the poor. “Luchando” has historically meant the fight for Castro’s socialist revolution, but in an ironic twist it has become hustler slang for the struggle associated with having sex for survival.
Luchando was supported by the Film Study Center at Harvard and produced at the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab. It has been honored with numerous awards, including the 2009 Best Documentary Film Director award from the Latin ACE.
Directed, shot, and co-produced by Noelle Stout, 2008, 55 min
A collaborative documentary shot in vérité style, Luchando follows the lives of four Cuban sex workers who each set out to resolve their touching—and at times humorous—predicaments in Havana.
Shot over the course of sixteen months, the film provides an unflinching, first-ever look at a growing community of sex workers trying to make a living in Havana’s homoerotic sex trade.
The story takes place in the last days of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, a post-communist nation torn between the ideals of socialist equality and a rapidly growing division between the rich and the poor. “Luchando” has historically meant the fight for Castro’s socialist revolution, but in an ironic twist it has become hustler slang for the struggle associated with having sex for survival.
Luchando was supported by the Film Study Center at Harvard and produced at the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab. It has been honored with numerous awards, including the 2009 Best Documentary Film Director award from the Latin ACE.
Directed, shot, and co-produced by Noelle Stout, 2008, 55 min
Select Screenings
GenderReel
Seattle International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Miami International LGBT Film Festival
NewFest International LGBT Film Festival
HBO/International Latino Film Festival
Santa Fe International Film Festival
Boston Latino International Film Festival
International Latino Film Festival San Francisco
New England Film & Video Festival
Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
San Francisco Documentary Film Festival
Docusur
Harvard Film Archive
Select Press
- Learn more about the making of Luchando in New England Film.com.
- Read a feature story on the film in the San Francisco Bay Guardian or a review of the film in El Nuevo Herald.
Distribution & Bootlegging
- Due to an agreement with the Cuban collaborators appearing in the film, Luchando is not available for individual purchase.
- Luchando was pirated and bootlegged — read about it’s illicit circulation here.