Two hundred photographers and documentary filmmakers from the United States are currently in Havana, Cuba, as part of project to document Cuban culture and life style. Assignment: Cuba is a program of one-and two-week educational workshops developed by The Maine Photographic Workshops and Rockport College. These two institutions are officially licensed by the US Treasury to conduct educational and cultural programs in Cuba.

"Life in Cuba is greatly misunderstood in the US," says David Lyman, Director of The Workshops and President of Rockport College. "The US embargo has left the Cuban people with little economic support, yet Cuban culture remains vibrant, if somewhat stalled in the 1950s."

The Assignment: Cuba project is an opportunity for American photographers and filmmakers to capture this unique society on film. The program is designed to be both an anthropological study and a journalistic undertaking which will result in editorial coverage concurrent with the project, as well as an archive for use by others interested in studying Cuba.

Fifteen of today's most important photographers, documentary filmmakers and picture editors are participating in Assignment: Cuba as workshop instructors and team leaders. They will set the pace, teach the process by which photographers and filmmakers tell stories, and then critique the work, thereby helping their students learn to become better communicators.

National Geographic staff photographers David Alan Harvey and William Albert Allard are both leading workshops in Havana, as will Maggie Steber, freelance photographer. Alex Webb and Constantine Manos from the picture agency Magnum will work with street photography. Bob Krist and Len Jenshel, both noted travel photographers, will explore the culture of Cuba with their students. Nature photographer David Middleton and his class will explore the landscape and farmlands of Cuba's interior. Picture editors from the New York Times, National Geographic and Contact Press Images will work with photographers on story assignments, picture selection and story layout. PBS filmmaker Bestor Cram will lead a team of documentary filmmakers in the use of digital video to record the photographers as they explore various aspects of Cuban life. The Americans photographers and videographers are guests of the Cuban Ministry of Culture. A contingent of Cuban photographers and filmmakers will participate in the project as guests of the Americans.

The Assignment: Cuba archive will contain stories, photographs, text and video captured by two hundred students in twenty-three workshops between February and April, 2000. Various media will be employed to produce and distribute the images and stories. Currently planned are a web site, video tapes for use by PBS stations and other news outlets and possibly a CD-ROM. The stories and images will be retained in an archive in Cuba at Fototeca, a photography center in Old Havana and in the Carter-Haas Library on the campus of Rockport College.

Note:
Assignment: Cuba is a photo and story opportunity, showing American and Cubans working together to document this unique culture. It is a people-to-people project, where American photographers and filmmakers work closely with Cubans to tell their stories through images, words and video tape while the Americans learn about Cuba and about their responsibilities as storytellers, photographers and documentary filmmakers. Reporters and television crews are invited to join this project to report on the process and the people-to-people endeavor.
For more information on Rockport College or The Workshops visit their Web sites at www.RockportCollege.edu and www.TheWorkshops.com

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