Javier Labrador Deulofeu Brings Cuban Independent Cinema to the World’s Top Film Festivals

Javier Labrador Deulofeu is a cinematographer, director, and filmmaker born in Havana, Cuba. He trained at the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños and has been working in film since the early 2000s.

Silver Lining commissioned this work from Javier Labrador Deulofeu as part of the small.artists Fotografía series, supported by Wells Fargo.

Labrador’s work sits at the intersection of documentary and fiction. His films have screened at Toronto, Rotterdam, Berlin, Tribeca, Camerimage, and DOC NYC, built largely outside the structures of Cuba’s state film institute, on the margins where, as he has said, the real work gets done. Hotel Nueva Isla, his documentary co-directed with Irene Gutiérrez, played at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight and traveled the international festival circuit. In 2018, he was selected for Berlinale Talents.

After relocating to Miami in 2019, Labrador won a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award as executive producer and cinematographer. He was commissioned to direct a short film for the 2022 Miami Film Festival. His most recent work, Road Work Ahead, was produced between Miami and Cuba.