Thursday, October 25 at 8:00 & 10:00 p.m.
Directed by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Joe Cardona, this new documentary offers a vibrant portrait of South Florida in the 1970s and 1980s.
“El Open House is a story that brings all of our cultures together into an eclectic, unique blend. It’s a celebration of who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be” says Joe Cardona. The one-hour program explores the social, cultural and musical forces that shaped our region and created its distinct sound.
In the 1960s, Miami became home to thousands of Cuban exiles. As families began to settle in, the first generation of Cubans raised in Miami embraced their adopted culture without forgetting their customs and traditions.
Watch a Preview of El Open House.
About Joe Cardona
Joe Cardona was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico (of Cuban parents) “all saints’day” 1967, the Emmy award winning director/producer has directed 14 feature length documentaries, mostly dealing with issues of cultural identity and Cuban history. (Adios Patria, Café con Leche, The Flight of Pedro Pan, Jose Marti: Legacy of Freedom, Havana: Portrait of Yesteryear, Honey Girl, White Elephant, Celia the Queen, Nou Bouke). Twelve of these documentaries have aired on PBS domestically and various outlets throughout Europe and Latin America. Joe has also directed, produced and written two feature films (Water, Mud and Factories, and Bro). Both films have traveled the world through film festivals and have been awarded prestigious awards such as the Flickapalooza Film Festival’s “Best Screenplay” (2001) for the film Bro.
The documentary Celia the Queen (about the life of Cuban songstress Celia Cruz) which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival garnered Joe national as well international recognition and acclaim. His work as co-producer of the PBS music series Latin Music USA was featured throughout the U.S. on the PBS network and in the United Kingdom through the BBC.
Joe holds a degree in Mass Communications from Florida International University. Reared on episodic television and album oriented rock radio, Joe always fancied himself a writer/director so he began working on indie projects fresh out of college. Facing his parent’s menacing threat of law school and desperately needing some bread, Joe opted for what seemed like a much easier graduate degree (and much needed student loans) entering a Masters’ in Tesol graduate program (teaching English as a second language). After attaining this much ballyhooed, prestigious degree he decided to plunge whatever was left of the student loans into his first doc. The rest you might say is history…
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