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Havana Habibi

Feature length documentary film 63 minutes, feminist festival, live performances and International cultural exchange.

Havana Habibi Festival is a pioneering, humanitarian cultural exchange that first took place in 2016, after an initial belly dance workshop hosted in 2002. The festival hosted 90 women and girls from Havana and the surrounding areas for 3 days of dance workshops, led by several leaders from the international belly dance community. Havana Habibi Festival was held again from April 19-23, 2018, with the best and brightest talents across continents, disciplines and genres. Hanan Arts was able to expand this program thanks to The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Knight Arts Challenge Grant, with matching funds from the Ware Foundation and sponsorships from the arts communities in Miami and Havana.

This is deep cultural work, conducted in a non-commercial format to offer an educational, cultural exchange and solidarity model. We are proud of the trailblazing work we have been doing on the ground since 2002!

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Havana Habibi 2020

Our first Virtual Festival was a great success!

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Havana Habibi 2018

Screenings, Workshops, and Panel Discussions

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Havana Habibi 2016

Workshops and a Gala Performance in Havana, Cuba

...as [the women] gain confidence and connect with their own individual forms of beauty, they soften and become more empowered.
— Artburst Miami

Havana Habibi Documentary Film Trailer (2016)

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An intimate portrait of a group of women coming of age through dance and struggling to navigate a charged political and cultural divide.
— The Miami Herald

In 2003, Tiffany Madera, aka “hanan,” enraged her Cuban family in Miami by getting on a plane to Havana to participate in an artistic exchange that led to the formation of Cuba’s first Arabic dance troupe; Grupo Aisha Al-Hanan. The troupe founded by hanan was composed of eight women at the University of Havana’s History Department. A live band of musicians shortly followed from Havana’s colorful and diverse music scene. Guided by hanan, Grupo Aisha Al Hanan; quickly gained notoriety around Cuba despite its departure from State- Sanctioned Culture and Art models. A grassroots cultural movement ensued.

For hanan’s family, her returning to Cuba was an act of support for the Communist Revolution that drove them from their island to Miami. Havana Habibi begins three years later, following hanan’s visit to Havana for the International Dance Festival and workshops with Grupo Aisha Al-Hanan. We meet the ensemble and see the sacrifices they make to create their art.

hanan confronts personal demons, crumbling health and family dissonance to teach in Havana. We see the struggles and sacrifice the Cuban artists experience in daily life. We hear how belly-dance has impacted the Cuban dancers’ and musicians’ lives and empowered them as people. We witness hanan’s student Gretel Sanchez Llabre become a great leader and artist forming Cuba’s first bellydance school and professional company Cuban Soho.

Havana Habibi looks at the cross cultural exchange and inter-migration between Africa, Cuba, and the USA; what it means to be a Cuban Belly-dancer in Revolutionary Cuba as well as the Diaspora, and travels throughout time, geography and space to tell a human story of healing, transformation, empowerment, liberation and Identity through the sensual metaphor of Bellydance.

Havana Habibi Festival, 2018

...as [the women] gain confidence and connect with their own individual forms of beauty, they soften and become more empowered.
— Artburst Miami

The Filmmakers

 
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Joshua Bee Alafia

Joshua Bee Alafia started making films in high school and graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a BA in Film in 1995. Since then he has been freelancing as a Cinematographer and Editor in World Cinema and writing and directing his own feature films.

His cinematographer credits in documentaries include; Every Day Art in Cuba, We Just Tellin’ Stories: Rodessa Jones’ Medea Project, Making Tortillas with the Mayans, Besouro Preto, Behind the Green Line, the Road to Sao Tome, the Cuban Hip Hop All Stars, Dub Poet: Oku Onuora, Maybe Dreams Can Come True and Fashioning Peace in Kenya and Havana Habibi,.

His editor credits include the documentaries Juneteenth Community, Maybe Dreams Can Come True, Louisiana Cane, and the Sundance Jury Award WinningWet Dreams and False Images. He has shot music videos for Luciano, Bikram Singh, King David, 77 Klash and Poets; Ainsley Burrows and Queen Godis. His film credits as writer/ director include the Anti Vigilante, Bold As Love, Se Safando, The Seed, Let’s Stay Together(the film, not the series) and the award winning Cubamor.

He is a founder and CEO of www.rootsflix.com; Art in the Spirit of Liberation, films devoted to expanding consiousness. Alafia resides in Brooklyn, NY. (joshuabeealafia.com)

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Tiffany Madera

Since 2002, Miami based artist Tiffany Madera has become a figurehead in the dance world by re-coding traditional Egyptian raks sharki dance as a tool for empowerment and social justice.  As a performer, professor, activist, museum professional, filmmaker, and non-profit leader, Ms. Madera combines a highly aesthetic approach and academic scholarship to tackle the questions of our day.

She offers a theory based,  community inclusive and global south perspective to local placemaking in the production of films, workshops and cultural exchanges in Miami, NYC, Morocco and the Caribbean. Her expanded approach to the arts is nourished by her Afro-Chinese Cuban ancestry.  

She holds a Master’s Degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University and a Master’s Degree in Performance Studies from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, both with a focus on intercultural dance and film. 

Ms. Madera’s cultural  background, professional and academic experience make her an impact driven and effective non profit leader positioned to bring complex work into fruition through strategic partnerships and collaborations. . Madera’s projects have garnered support and awards across the world including a $100,000 Knight Arts Challenge award with a full matching grant from the Ware Foundation among numerous state, county, municipal and national foundation awards.