Before Night Falls

“It hovers ethereally over its subject and conjures up fragments of his consciousness in brilliant, disconnected flashes.”—New York Times

Initially a supporter of Castro’s Cuban revolution, gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas came of age in the sexual revolution, was charged with ideological deviation and jailed, eventually fleeing to the United States. For his extraordinary portrait of the dissident writer who fought for freedom of political and artistic expression, Javier Bardem was nominated for an Academy Award and won the National Board of Review and Independent Spirit Awards for best actor. Schnabel received the Venice Film Festival’s Special Grand Jury Prize. 2000, 35mm, 133 minutes.