of newshour weekend's ongoing series of conversations with documentary filmmakers. >> reporter: jon alpert's first rip to cuba in 1974 was a quick one. defying the american embargo, he and a friend sailed into the country illegally, where they were briefly detained. their trip ended hours later after a rushed, chaperoned drive through havana by cuban authorities. >> they showed up with these two gorgeous cadillac convertibles with the big fins and stuff like that, took us on a three-hour trip around havana and said, "okay, you've seen cuba, time to go home," and... and kicked us out. >> reporter: if the cuban authorities had hoped to diminish alpert's interest in their country, it didn't work. the 24-year-old new york city filmmaker, intrigued by the communist revolution, was only just getting started. >> i want free good health care for everybody in the united states. i really want it. i want free good schools for everybody in the united states. i want decent housing. i want equal opportunity. and they were... they were going for it down there in cuba, so i sure wanted to see for myself. >>