BreakThrough News announces the New York City premiere of Cuba After Castro, a landmark documentary featuring the first and only interview Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has ever conducted with a U.S. journalist. The film will premiere on Wednesday, April 16, and a Q&A with the filmmakers will follow the screening.

New York City Premiere: April 16, 2026 at SVA Theatre, 333 W. 23rd St. New York, NY

The premiere arrives at a moment of extraordinary urgency. The Trump administration has imposed a de facto oil blockade on Cuba, demanded the resignation of President Díaz-Canel as a precondition for negotiations, and openly threatened a “takeover” of the island.

Cuba After Castro is the only film that gives American audiences direct, unmediated access to the man at the center of this confrontation—at the very moment Washington is trying to force him from power.

Directed by Abby Martin and Matthew Belen, the series is both a look at Díaz-Canel—an electrical engineer who rose to become Cuba’s first leader born after 1959—and a window into the daily reality of a nation under siege. Martin asks Diaz-Canel about the government’s response to domestic protests, foreign threats, the pandemic, and whether relations with the U.S. can ever be reset. The film draws on exclusive archival footage from the Cuban film archive ICAIC, chronicling Cuba’s history from revolution to the present crisis, moving far beyond the familiar Western narrative.

“The U.S. government is actively trying to topple a head of state that almost no American has ever heard speak. That alone should alarm anyone who cares about informed public debate,” said co-director Abby Martin. “This film exists because the American people deserve to see Cuba, and the man leading it, through something other than the lens of seventy years of hostility.”

“Our film comes at perhaps the most urgent moment in U.S.-Cuba relations since the Missile Crisis,” said co-director Matthew Belen. “With Washington now threatening a takeover, and millions of people there enduring constant blackouts, this film could not be more timely.”

Official Trailer

Other Screenings

LOS ANGELES
Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Venue: Laemmle Royal, Los Angeles, CA

SAN FRANCISCO

Date: Friday, April 24, 2026
Venue: Roxie Theater, San Francisco, CA
Program: Full screening followed by Q&A with director Abby Martin

Abby Martin is an American journalist and filmmaker, and the founder of The Empire Files. Her work focuses on U.S. foreign policy and its human consequences. Her 2019 feature Gaza Fights For Freedom has been widely recognized as a definitive documentary on Palestine. Her latest film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy (2025), about the environmental footprint of the U.S. military, is currently on a director’s tour.

Matthew Belen is a Dominican documentary filmmaker from New York City with a background in news and documentary post-production, having worked as an editor for Vice News, Buzzfeed, Condé Nast, and docu-series including The Vow and How To: With John Wilson. He has spent the last five years building BreakThrough News into a leading platform for anti-war media. He was lead producer on The Encampments (2025), which premiered at CPH:DOX and broke the box office record for highest per-theater average for a documentary on its opening weekend.

BreakThrough News is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media and educational organization dedicated to independent, fact-based reporting on issues affecting global movements for social justice.