The first Canadian who meet Fidel: The Journey of Erik Durschmied

tvochannel

Finding Fidel: The Journey of Erik Durschmied tells the remarkable story of Austrian-Canadian journalist Erik Durschmied, who in 1958 journeyed to Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains to film one of the first interviews with a little-known rebel leader named Fidel Castro. Shortly after that meeting, Castro's band of fighters rolled into Havana, and Durschmied's career as a top war cameraman was launched.

50 years later, Durschmied returns to Castro's rebel camp, still intact high in the Cuban mountains. He recounts a fascinating personal narrative and the story of how he produced the interview, with Castro memorizing his English answers in dozens of takes. Director Bay Weyman interweaves the rarely-seen 1958 footage of life at the rebel camp with Durschmied's reflections on the lost promise of Castro's revolución and on the hinge of fate that determined his own career.