…so, who made this great movie anyway?

Director, Producer, Original Idea
Annalee Davis



Annalee was born in Barbados in 1963. She completed a BFA at the Maryland Institute, College of Art and an MFA at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. After university, in 1989, she returned to the Caribbean where she lives and works.

ON THE MAP is Annalee’s first video project. Her relationships with two migrant women in particular over the past thirteen years made her deeply aware of the struggles and challenges that Caribbean migrants were battling on a daily basis. The ongoing attempt at regional integration seemed to her to be functioning in a “top down” fashion. Annalee made ON THE MAP to present a “bottom up” perspective.



Although ON THE MAP has largely been a “no-budget” film, Annalee has ideas to create a second video project. Although keen to show the film to an international audience, she is particularly interested in screening it throughout the Caribbean with panel sessions which will allow the ideas raised in the video project to be discussed more thoroughly.


Creative Director, Photography, Editor
Omar Estrada



Omar Estrada was born in Camaguey, Cuba in 1963. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Havana and has exhibited his work in Cuba, Europe, North America, South America and the Caribbean.

Omar came to Barbados in 2004 to mount a solo exhibition. He read of Annalee’s work in a catalogue and called her. They met one evening to attend an opening for graduating students from the local college. By the end of the night he had a job….a working relationship developed between the two as teachers at the college which later grew into their collaboration for ON THE MAP one year later.

Omar has brought an astonishing amount of energy (fueled by coffee and the occasional rum) and courage (ON THE MAP was a big job with little money) to this project.

His untiring dedication, perfectionism and attention to detail have contributed to creating a film which is beautifully shot and intelligently edited.

Omar was willing to go to the very edge, even when his life was in danger, to get the very best shot for ON THE MAP.




Original Sound
David Alvarez



Born in 1972 in Manzanillo in the eastern heartlands of Cuban “son”, David Alvarez grew up making music. He took up classical guitar early and then also percussion, taking music lessons first in Manzanillo and then at the Conservatoire in Santiago de Cuba, before eventually moving to Havana. Here he became involved in the contemporary 'nueva trova' song movement joining the group of Pedro Luis Ferrer, one of Cuba's modern troubadours in 1989.



An accomplished songwriter, Alvarez’s music is deeply rooted in the Caribbean. His confident arrangements, combining traditional “son” with rootsy fusion and Colombian cumbia rhythms, have an experimental energy that makes them intriguing.
His music has been classified as some of the most exciting Latin crossover music for the new millenium. Alvarez and his band, Juego de Manos were nominated for a Latin Grammy award in 2005 as a part of the production "Cuba le Canta a Serrat".


Alvarez came on board the ON THE MAP project to create original music for the film. His versatility and dynamism as a world class musician have contributed enormously to the outcome of ON THE MAP, creating sounds that were suitably zesty, poignant, fresh and unpredictable.