Synopsis

Twelve-year old Lizbet Martinez steps off the dock and onto the rickety raft her father had fashioned from innertubes, rope and scrap lumber. She clutches her only remaining possessions - a small bag of clothes, and a tattered violin. Three swimmers push them through the battering waves towards the open sea. One begs to join them. He would make the thirteenth person crowded onto this eight foot craft, but they can't leave him behind. Together they paddle through the night, but the progress is painfully slow. By morning the outline of Havana has just begun to finally fade. As Lizbet turns towards the black ocean, she thinks of the sharks and the storms and the journey that faces her, and wonders if she'll ever see Cuba again...

While this is a new and terrifying experience for her, Lizbet and her raftmates are following a well-worn path - a journey that began on New Year's Day 1959. It was on that morning when Havana awoke to the rapidly spreading rumors that Fidel Castro and his band of bearded revolutionaries had defeated Cuban dictator Fulgencia Batista. Castro would soon emerge as Cuba's new leader, and life would never be the same for her six million citizens.

Under Castro's watch, the Cuban people endured one of the greatest social upheavals in the Western Hemisphere. He instituted revolutionary reforms so radical and pervasive that little by little he managed to alienate members from nearly every sector of the Cuban population - from the wealthy land and business owners, to the professional class, to the blue-collar laborers, and finally the poor. Eventually hundreds of thousands of Cubans left Cuba, most ending up in the United States.

Today the number of Cubans in the United States is over a million, and the exodus continues. It remains one of the most complex, and yet least explored, migrations in modern American history. While only ninety miles of water separate the two countries, a vast sea of political differences have ripped families apart, altered history forever, and continues to make the headlines today.

Voices From Cuba is a one-hour television documentary that explores this unique migration through the eyes of the people who lived it. We follow the personal immigration stories of a very diverse group of Cuban Immigrants - from their lives in Cuba and their decisions to leave, through their amazing journeys to the United States. We meet artists, students, writers, fighters, and dancers - young and old, black and white, rich and poor. We hear from those who came in the sixties and ache for a Cuba of yesteryear, and those who came in the nineties and recount life in Castro's Cuba.

Like Luis Rodriguez, a veteran of the Cuban army who left Castro's prisons in 1959, only to return to lead the first wave onto the beaches at the Bay of Pigs. And Neri Torres, an Afro Cuban dancer and choreographer who survived a nerve-wracking defection in the early nineties. And Lizbet Martinez, a twelve-year-old musical prodigy who was finally picked up by the Coast Guard in 1994, after seven days at sea on an overloaded raft.

These stories interweave with one another along a fascinating historic tapestry spanning half a century - from the roots of Castro's revolution, through the Cold War, and into the present day headlines. They wind through the major immigration waves that have made up this exodus - Post Revolution (1959-1962), The Freedom Flights (1965-1973), the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, and the Rafter Crisis of the 1990's.

We explore the abrupt and often bizarre ways each of these waves started, and how they just as abruptly ended. We see how the ever-changing policies of both Cuba and the United States have affected the desire and ability of these Cubans to leave their homeland. And we look at the huge impact these émigrés have had on both countries - from the void they've left behind in a struggling Cuba, to the growing social and political power that they've developed in the United States.

We're capturing these stories by interviewing our subjects in a classic documentary style - looking slightly off camera to an unseen and unheard interviewer. We'll build upon this foundation with a blend of family photos, home movies, archival newsreels, and contemporary footage of each of our subjects. Interviews with a sociologist and an historian will provide context and objectivity, and minimal off-camera narration will help move the stories forward. And as music is such an important part of the Cuban culture, an original score reflective of the times will offer yet another voice to our film.

The final program will be a seamless integration of these elements, with a style far more personal than journalistic. Our goal is to transport the viewers into the very lives of these Cubans, and allow them to experience this migration and its historic moments first-hand. Every event will reveal itself from within the stories of our subjects - providing unique perspectives and multiple points of view. For example, we return to the day Batista fled Cuba through several eyes. Luis Rodriguez describes the strange and frightening way he had to surrender his arms and his freedom to Castro's troops; while Manuel Gomez remembers dancing in the streets with his family, hoping Cuba's new leader would free them from the poverty they had endured for so many years.

This fresh approach enables Voices From Cuba to explore the many themes and questions associated with this migration in a new way. For example, why did these Cubans leave Cuba while millions of others stayed? Do they consider themselves exiles from Cuba, or immigrants to the United States? How do they cope with this duality?

We'll look at some of the differences between those who immigrated during the early waves, and those who came over more recently. And as these differences emerge, we'll explore what ties these Cubans together - a common culture and language, the displacement from a beloved homeland, and the quest for freedom and self-determination in a new country.

In the end, Voices From Cuba will be a unique look at a migration that has forever changed the shape and texture of the United States. But it will also be a telling portrait of a people trapped in a kind of limbo - floating in a sea between the two countries they love. The United States has become their home, but Cuba will always be their homeland.

So as Castro reaches his final years, the big question of what will become of Cuba looms like a freighter in the Cuban American community. Some dream of returning to a free Cuba someday. Other say they'll stay in the United States, where they've raised families and lived most of their lives. But as this documentary reveals, all of them agree that the events of the last fifty years will have marked them and their descendants for generations to come.

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