After so many years of working on the documentary, I finally will share it with the world. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to show it close to the community I intended. Miami-based Cuban-Americans and Cubans throughout the world are curious as ever to see and hear how people are living their lives in Havana. So much of the journalistic coverage focuses on political and economic realities. Cuba is more than that. Political systems rise and fall, but architecture often outlives them all. The 7 kilometer seawall that runs along the seaside highway between Miramar and Old Havana is that sort of urban landmark. A product of politics, but an architectural work that provides solace for its location and design. It has already outlived its colonial builders, Americans of the very early 20th century, several Cuban presidents and dictators during the neo-colonial period. And, it survives the socialist system since the 1950s. As a great wall, it stands to give a prominent place for someone to stand, face the sea as one faces the unknown future, to escape the troubles of ones life, and to share in the private magic of the ever moving tide and sky. The highway separates you from the life you live in the moment from the life that you left on the other side of the highway, in the city.
My film, Portraits on the Malecón will premiere at the Miami International Documentary Film Festival on Sunday September 25, 2011 in the Juniper Room of the Doral Golf Resort and Spa. The address of the Doral Resort is 4400 NW 87th Avenue, Doral, FL. Here is a link to the film festival schedule: Schedule at the Miami International Film Festival: Portraits on the Malecón. I hope to see you there. I will be there with Clarissa Martinez, one of the subjects of the film - a poet, a linguist and an intellectual. She offers her poetic take on the seawall. She has emigrated to Miami, and she will share in presenting the film.
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How long does it take for any human made structure to outlive the political purpose for its original design? One thing about the malecón of Havana is that the smooth paved road was meant to deliver U.S. troops into the city in the event of a colonial uprising. So much architectural form was built for a short term. The U.S. took possession of Cuba after the Spanish-American war. Only two years later, Cuba was sovereign, though still under the indirect control of the U.S.
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