PERPETUATING HATE
Goran Dragic discusses where the Heat stands entering the All-Star break. Also, what did the Heat know about Giannis Antetokounmpo’s offseason intentions?
Listening to Trump worshipers, who seem to be educated people and yet continue to say that the election was stolen — and that he needs to come back to restore our country, destroy this imaginary “communist agenda and eliminate our enemies — saddens me tremendously.
Why? Because the only thing I can see behind it is hate, prejudice and racism. What else?
Unfortunately these horrible feelings are learned, encouraged and perpetuated in many families for generations.
– Maria Pino, Miami Springs
Every year, the Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival programmers walk a curatorial high-wire. We quest for work that illuminates and expands the world as we Miamians perceive it; work that speaks to our dynamic community while maintaining high artistic standards.
For the 38th edition, which launches March 5 and runs until March 14 with daily screenings at Silverspot Cinemas downtown and from your sofa at home via virtual screenings, our programming crusade took on an even greater sense of purpose. With Miami still reeling from pandemic trauma, just producing this year’s Festival — instead of canceling or postponing it — felt vital in and of itself, providing Miamians with a sense of continuity and tradition, and a bridge to something we, at one time, could always take for granted.
The most difficult film to program every year is that for opening night. We can only choose one, and it sets the tone for the edition’s identity and how history will remember us. The pressure to get it right can be intense. We prayed that we would find a great Miami story for this crucial slot in 2021, and the universe blessed us with Edson Jean’s “Ludi,” which will have its world premiere on Friday.
In one sense, “Ludi” is a small film, shot in mere days with a budget of less than $50,000, with a small cast and few locations. In another, much more important, sense, “Ludi” is a huge film. It rose out of Miami’s sizable Haitian community and it redresses a community that has long been cinematically underrepresented. But there are even more layers of nuance to its selection as Miami Film Festival’s openingnight presentation.
“Ludi’s” Black title character is a recent Haitian immigrant; the film’s plot also turns, significantly, on two other characters — one a Cuban, the other a Jewish white man. This makes “Ludi” a story about Miami as it is now, with three of its largest communities continually circling each other, perpetually adjusting to co-existence, re-calibrating to avoid conflicts with each other, learning to share their roles in shaping the soul of our city. Best of all, “Ludi” is a wonderous entertainment — it has charm like a sparkle and is touching in a most universal way, reminding us to continue to adjusting our perspectives in times of personal duress.
Being seen is one of the most powerful things the movies can do for us. In Miami, generational conflict between Cuban-Americans often centers around the view of Cuban identity, and it affects all Miamians, Cuban or not. The first Cubans who fled here post-Revolution and have been a dominant force in Miami civic life ever since are now settling into their sunset years — meanwhile, many of their children and grandchildren have evolved their own diverse views on Cuba.
Lilo Vilaplana’s “Plantados” recounts the horrors of torture suffered by political prisoners in Castro’s prisons before their escape to Miami. It’s an epic, muscular production, a sweeping cri de coeur across those generations; the very potency and verve of its style feel like one final plea to younger Miamians to never forget the atrocities that Castro inflicted on so many. Manny Soto’s “A New Dawn” is quieter but no less emotional, and it, too, is a rallying cry for remembrance.
Jayme Kaye Gershen’s “Birthright” literally shows us Miami Cuban family dinner-table conversations from the next generation’s point of view. Two Miamiborn Cuban musicians who make up the popular band Afrobeat are invited to play a concert in Havana during the short-lived Obama thaw, but must contend with some virulent objections from some members of their family. The pair goes forward with the trip and learn much about themselves from their generational musician counterparts living on the island. “Birthright” imagines the connection between young people as a path into the future for Miami. It’s a vision shared by Andy Señor Jr.’s “Revolution Rent.”
With a mass exodus from Venezuela re-shaping a new generation of Miami, Maria Corina Ramirez’s semi-autobiographical “Bridges” is a vital document — the story of a DREAMer grappling with the adjustments to American, specifically 305, life. The documentary “Sweet Soul” is indescribably moving, as it honors our Black elders. Isaac Mead-Long’s science-fiction “Pallavi” considers our environmental future. Our sprawling, complex city can never be fully represented in just one season, or even one article. But the annual joy of Miami Film Festival is the ability to stop for a beat and take in a mosaic of Miami’s stories on screen vis-à-vis those from the rest of the globe. It helps us understand how we are fitting into the world.
Pride in Miami is the always our focus, but, especially in 2021, with Miami’s world-famous primary area code 305 sheathed in traditional film festival laurels. The message is that 305 is always a winner, 305 is shining strong in the spotlight.
To see this year’s films is to give faith that our fortitude is still here.
With Thursday night’s road matchup against the New Orleans Pelicans marking the Heat’s final game before the All-Star break, veteran guard Goran Dragic reflected on the first half of the regular season a few hours before tip-off.
A first half that included injury issues and protocol-related absences that kept multiple key Heat players out for extended stretches.
“It has been tough,” Dragic said following the Heat’s shootaround session Thursday morning in New Orleans. “But every team in this league is going through those times. It’s not easy with the protocols and the injuries. But we feel like we bounced back. We need to finish the job [Thursday] and try to get back to .500 and take that break, try to recover a little bit and then finish the job strong.”
Dragic entered Thursday averaging 14.9 points while shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 36.2 percent on threes, three rebounds and 4.9 assists in 21 games (eight starts) this season.
Dragic, who turns 35 on May 6, has been one of the Heat’s key pieces who has already been unavailable for a chunk of games. He has missed 14 games during the first half of the regular season — two because of the NBA’s health and safety protocols, three because of a left groin strain and nine be
cause of a sprained left ankle.
The longest stretch of consecutive games that Dragic has played in so far this season is eight because of those three separate multigame absences.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “I deal with it as much as I can and try to look for positives. We still got one more game and then after the All-Star break, hopefully we’re going to find some consistent playing time. Not only me, but as a group and as a unit so we can get back to being us.”
Following Thursday’s game in New Orleans, the Heat will return from the break to resume its schedule on March 11 against the Orlando Magic at AmericanAirlines Arena. That week off will be welcomed by most players on Miami’s roster, but Dragic feels differently about the upcoming break.
“If I’m honest, I already had a break. I was hurt for two or three weeks,” said Dragic, who just returned last week after missing nine games because of a sprained ankle. “I was at home, getting treatment to get back. I was not with the team, so basically that was my break. But I do feel like that the team needs it to try to recharge our batteries. I’m going to stay in Miami, and every day try to go to the gym if that’s going to be possible and try to do some work.”
This All-Star break during the COVID-19 pandemic includes no international travel and daily testing for players.
NO HEADS UP
Heat center Bam Adebayo and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo share the
same agent, Alex Saratsis.
So there was a theory that Saratsis would inform the Heat of Antetokounmpo’s intentions before Miami committed a big chunk of 2021 cap space to Adebayo this past offseason. But Saratsis said that never happened.
“I can tell you that honestly,” Saratsis told Complex. “‘Oh, well Bam signed, they must know something.’ They knew nothing. And I made sure. Agents do this all the time: You leverage one guy for another. And I never do that. It’s good to have information, but I would never talk Giannis’ business with Miami, and I would never talk about Miami’s business with any other team. You don’t leverage one guy for another.”
Adebayo ended up signing the richest contract in Heat history in November — a five-year, $163 million max contract extension that could grow to as much as $195 million.
And Antetokounmpo signed a five-year, $228 million supermax extension with the Bucks just a few weeks later.
A RISING STAR
There won’t be a Rising Stars Game during the All-Star break this season because of the pandemic, but the NBA on Wednesday named players who would have been on those teams had there been a
game. And Heat secondyear guard Tyler Herro and rookie center Precious Achiuwa were both named to the game, which includes first- and secondyear players.
“It’s a great honor,” said Herro, who missed last year’s Rising Stars Game because of a foot injury. “I mean, it’s my second year being nominated for it, my second year not being able to play. So I haven’t really gotten the full experience of it. But, like I said, it’s a great honor to be selected again.”
INJURY UPDATE
Heat star wing Jimmy Butler made his return Thursday against the Pelicans after missing the previous two games with right knee inflammation. But Adebayo missed the Heat’s final game before the All-Star break because of left knee tendinitis.
It’s the same knee injury that had Adebayo on the injury report for two of the Heat’s previous three games, but he ended up playing in both of those.
Guard Avery Bradley (right calf strain) and center Meyers Leonard (season-ending left shoulder surgery) also missed Thursday’s contest. It marks the 15th consecutive game that Bradley has missed.