Living just 90 miles apart, the lives of a dozen young Cuban women and men, six in Havana and six in Miami, are being chronicled in an online documentary project, Havana-Miami.

In an article in the Miami Herald, Ilan Ziv, executive producer of the project, says:

The idea behind Havana-Miami is to use human experiences that are very similar to help connect audiences and overcome their political alienation … The stories from Havana are very similar to the Miami stories: People trying to survive and dreaming about their future. When you explore the huge cultural and human connection that exists between Miami and Havana, the commonality of people’s experiences outweighs their political differences.

The project is being produced by University of Miami School of Communication graduate students Mark Shumow and Mark Mocahbee, with the help of undergraduate students who are filming the Miami participants and a Cuban film making team in Havana. The project is funded by Arte, a French-German TV network, and in association with the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami.

This three-month web series is comprised of six short (2-minute long) video updates each week and will be completed in May. Viewers can watch the web series as it unfolds’ at http://www.havana-miami.tv. A stand-alone documentary will be produced upon completion of the series.