GIVE ME FUTURE: MAJOR LAZER IN CUBA
Share the joy as hundreds of thousands welcome Major Lazer to the streets of Havana for the city's first post-embargo international concert.
Their 2015 hit single Lean On turned cult electro trio Diplo, Walshy Fire and Jillionaire, aka Major Lazer, into international superstars. So the appreciative group proposed some far-flung dates for their 2016 world tour: Pakistan, Ethiopia, Venezuela … and Cuba, where Western music had previously been banned by Castro.
In a tightly controlled country with less than 10% internet penetration, would anyone even show up? Thanks to Cuban geeks disseminating terabytes of pirated world culture (dubbed 'Paquete Semanal') through a clandestine offline network, it turns out even Cuban mums know and love these dancehall bangers. Director Austin Peters' guerilla documentary captures both the thriving underground popular culture in the country and the historic concert, which is only the second there by a US act since 1962.
'Give Me Future offers hope that political and social gaps can always be bridged. Especially when there's a good beat, and you can dance to it.' – The Wrap