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| On the 100th Anniversary of Johnny O’Brien’s death… Join filmmaker Charlie O’Brien for a screening and discussion of A Captain UnafraidFILM SCREENING Tuesday, June 20 @ 7 pm Solidarity Center FREE (donations welcome) ‘Dynamite’ Johnny O’Brien was born in 1837 in Manhattan, N.Y., though his parents hailed from Cavan and Longford, Ireland. Involved in revolution from Haiti to Colombia and from Texas to Mexico, in many ways Johnny was a rebel without a cause, that is, until he found his cause in the 19th century Cuban War of Independence, as a gunrunner, smuggling weapons to the Cuban freedom fighters revolting against Spanish colonial rule. Defying Spanish spies, death threats, and American law, O’Brien became a hero in Cuba and a legend in New York. Shot in the U.S., Cuba and Ireland, A Captain Unafraid follows the strange adventure’s of Dynamite Johnny. His ghost written autobiography (A Captain Unafraid, The Strange Adventures of Dynamite Johnny O’Brien) is used as a skeleton to hang the rest of the film on. Johnny’s adventures are brought to life through animated segments, illuminating some of his more memorable escapades. The film is as much a character study as a historical documentary and uses various tools to find out what really made “Dynamite” Johnny tick. The few historians and writers who have actually written about Johnny such as, Marian Betancourt and José Quintana are also featured. The Cuban portion of the filming was filmed in conjunction with the Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba. |
