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• 02 / 12 / 2009

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The forum, set for February 9th-11th at the Spanish American Culture Center, aims to boost and promote audiovisual productions in the Caribbean.

Rigoberto López, President of the film showcase, inaugurated the forum, which includes master conferences by Omar González, President of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC); Herman Van Hooff, Director of UNESCO’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean; José Juan Ortiz, UNICEF Representative in Cuba, and Pablo Ramos, Coordinator of the UNIAL Network (Audiovisual Universe of Latin American and Caribbean Children).

Panels have discussed several presentations on the current situation of film and audiovisual productions for children and young people in Caribbean nations, by filmmakers Camile Selvon from Trinidad & Tobago and Glandstone Yearwood from Barbados, Cuban producer Aramís Acosta and researchers Frantz Voltaire and Max Madelon.

Cuban filmmaker Juan Padrón and Reinaldo González, former Director of Cuba’s National Cinematheque chair a panel discussion entitled ‘Elpidio Valdés: An experience in Cuba’s Animation Film’. Another presentation, by expert Tania Licea with UNICEF’s Office in Cuba, will deal with culture, audiovisuals and social rights of young boys and girls. Professor Claudio Avendaño, of the Diego Portales University in Santiago de Chile, will make a presentation on the use of the Internet for social purposes.

Another panel deals with the presence of film and audiovisual productions in TV programming of Caribbean nations. Panelists will include Telesur’s Deputy President Milton Crespo; Carla Fordyghan, Director of the National Film Company of Trinidad & Tobago, and ICAIC’s Deputy President Benigno Iglesias.

Lecturers will include Haitian-Quebecois filmmaker Martine Chartrand, who was granted the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006 for her animation film ‘Black Soul’.

The Traveling Caribbean Film Showcase is a non profit cultural project based in Cuba. The aim is to promote cinematography and film makers in the region and Latin America; impart educational messages to children and foster cultural integration among Caribbean peoples.

This year its focus is on children and youth in three categories 5-8, 8-12 and those older than 12 and includes shorts, features, documentaries and animation from the spectrum of countries in the greater Caribbean including 12 island nations, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Belize and Costa Rica.

The film showcase has received sponsorship from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Children´s Fund (UNICEF) the University of the West Indies and other regional institutions.

(Granma)