The app can be previewed in the iTunes store here.
The new app’s centerpiece is a 56-minute documentary, produced by award-winning Santa Barbara filmmaker Michael Colin, which tells the story of Colin’s father, who went to Havana in 1959 to make a movie about the Cuban Revolution. When he returned to Los Angeles, the elder Colin was highly agitated and told anyone who would listen that he been imprisoned and tortured in Cuba while working on a frog farm for the CIA. A psychiatrist diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic. Growing up, this was all Michael Colin knew about his father: Something happened to him. In Cuba. On a CIA frog farm.
Colin ultimately went to Cuba to try and make sense out of the nonsense…and learned that his father may have been telling the truth. The app also contains additional content such as video clips, articles and director’s commentary, which provide broader personal and historical contexts for the documentary. A trailer for the documentary can be viewed at: www.lostintheshadows.com.
In addition to a brilliant original score by Santa Barbara film composer Todd Holden Capps, “Cuba: Lost in the Shadows” features William Alexander Morgan as one of its key players. Morgan, the “Yanqui Comandante” who fought with—and was executed by—Fidel Castro, was the subject of a recent, exhaustive article in “The New Yorker.” George Clooney has acquired the rights and will produce and direct a feature film based on the article.
Journalists interested in reviewing the iPad app and/or the documentary can contact Michael Colin at mtcolin@gmail.com to obtain review copies.