Today marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Three years earlier Fidel Castro had led a popular revolution on the island and he remains the president today, despite countless CIA assassination attempts.

The Cuban leader is also the subject of a new documentary called “Fidel: The Untold Story” by filmmaker Estela Bravo, an American filmmaker who has lived and worked in Havana for many years. Bravo obtained rare interviews with Castro and exclusive footage from the Cuban State archives. Castro is seen swimming with bodyguards, visiting his childhood home and school, joking with his friend Nelson Mandela, meeting with Elian Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with the Buena Vista Social Club.

The story unfolds through the words of Alice Walker, Sydney Pollack, Ted Turner, Muhammed Ali, Harry Belafonte, Angela Davis, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Ramsey Clark, Wayne Smith and others.

Guest:

• Estela Bravo, has made 26 documentary films since arriving in Cuba in 1966. Currently she is making “Operation Peter Pan,” about the 14,000 Cuban children who were sent to the United States by their parents to escape the Cuban revolution.

Related link:

• First Run Icarus Films