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Cuba has this strange hold over people's imaginations and their emotions -- the romance, the music, the tropical life of the island makes mouths water and then there's the politics of course: Castro, Che, the US and embargoes. In the dust clouds all this churns up, we somehow lose sight of the fact that people live, work, and create there. That Cubans have a culture and world view that actually exists -- not a reaction against the USA, not a reaction against anything -- just Cuban.

Jacobs-Fantauzzi has made a film with love and respect for the Cubans he films -- young hip hop artists who have thought and worked out what it is they feel about the world they live in. They have an almost tangible identity and there's nothing self conscious or fake about it. The documentary follows them in their daily lives of writing, performing and discussing hip hop in Cuba and then as they go to the USA for the first time to record an album and perform.

Hip hop in Cuba is a movement -- an awakening for young people and a place to discuss the realities they live in. The scene is informal and grass roots -- performances take place in the back yard of someone's house or on a stage with a couple of mics. The style is old school -- scratching and fabulous mixing goes on and the words just fly.

This documentary has been seen as a 'social' film highlighting issues we're all focusing on these days: globalisation, world politics, development, poverty, identity and of course the USA. But behind all this, is a film about a group of young people clued up and sure of themselves -- artists with total faith in what they are doing and their potential to make change happen.

Inventos: Hip Hop Cubano the album is available to buy, as is a copy of the documentary for screenings on: www.clenchedfistproductions.com