Shoot Down
The distance between the U.S. and Cuba is more than 90 miles.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, thousands of Cuban refugees – using pretty much anything that would float – attempted to cross the Florida Straits. Unsurprisingly, the majority of these refugees failed to survive the crossing and many (an estimated 24,000) of them died at sea. This situation led to the formation of Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based volunteer group that patrolled the Straits in small civilian aircraft, offering aid to the rafters that they found and alerting the US coastguard to their presence.
In 1996, against a background of rising political unrest in Cuba and in the wake of a revised U.S. policy toward Cuban refugees, two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down by Cuban MiGs, killing four men.
Using a mixture of news footage and interviews, Shoot Down explores the run-up to and the aftermath of these events. It’s a powerful story and writer/director Cristina Khuly, whose uncle was one of those killed, has constructed a remarkably even-handed film.
The first half of the film focusses on Brothers to the Rescue and their mission and provides some very enthusiastic interviews, not just from the Florida Cuban community but from the coastguard as well. Where the shoot down itself is covered, much criticism is levelled at the Clinton administration for not doing enough to prevent it in the first place and for not doing enough in response to what was clearly the illegal shooting down of two civilian aircraft in international waters.
Jose Basulto, the co-founder and leader of Brothers to the Rescue is allowed to profess his innocent intentions and outrage at the events and we see a series of shots of Republican politicians railing against Castro for the crime and Clinton for his response.
Then Khuly takes a look at the other side of the coin.
In 1994, after the Clinton administration and Castro entered into negotiations over Cuban immigration, Brothers to the Rescue took it upon themselves to expand their mission. Not only were they seeking to help refugees, but they also started leafleting Havana, to expose the government “for creating the conditions that made it necessary for those people to jump on a raft.”
The date of the shoot down was February 24th – Cuban Independence Day, a date with huge political significance for the country. Although the Brothers to the Rescue planes weren’t over Cuban waters, they were approaching them.
Ignoring myriad government warnings, Brothers to the Rescue had moved from being rescuers to provocateurs. And Shoot Down is a documentary about an unjustifiable but avoidable crime.
It’s a powerful and important story told in a very well balanced manner. My only real criticism is that the heavy reliance on interviews and news footage does make the narrative a lot drier than it could have been.
Sunday 03 Feb 2008 | Paul Pritchard | Documentary
