Havana, Cuba

In August 2019 I got on a plane to Cuba with my friend Mary. Neither of us spoke any Spanish, and I had only discovered a few days prior that there is little to no internet access, except through government-run networks in public parks.

As we boarded the plane we frantically screenshotted Google translations of key phrases like "may I use the bathroom" and "how much is this?”

The trip was intense and magical. Being August, it was brutally hot. We were completely disconnected from the world outside Cuba and unable to verbally communicate with almost everyone we encountered there, save one another.

One of my favourite things about shooting film is the suspension of time - the way that captured moments sit in limbo before the film is developed. Unable to relay any stories to friends back home as we normally would, our time on this trip felt similarly suspended.