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BARRIO

Sponsored Project

  • Juan Carvajal, Director
  • Viviana Serna, Producer
  • Carlos Ospina, Producer
Silhouettes of people sitting and standing along the Malecón seawall in Havana at sunset, with the city skyline behind them and a deep orange sky.

About the Project

BARRIO follows salsa and timba across Cuba, New York, Puerto Rico, and Colombia — a music that was never a genre but a language of resistance created by Black communities shaped by violence and abandonment. From the founding architects of salsa in their final years to young Afro-Colombians keeping the tradition alive in community sound systems where music fulfills a role the state never did, the film captures testimony that is disappearing with each passing year. BARRIO is not a celebration. It is an act of rescue.