21st August, 2008
The Cultural Section of the 6th edition of Discovering Latin American Film Festival is devoted to promoting film collaborations between Latin America and Europe. Questions such as how the Latin American and the European film industries are benefiting from these collaborations and what we can do to improve the current conditions of these types of co-productions are central to this year’s event. A group of key professionals representing the film industries of both sides of the Atlantic will be joining voices on Sunday 25th of November in a panel discussion at the Tate Modern. They will help us understand what it really means to make a film in Latin America.
Panel Discussion – Film synergies: Latin American and European Co-productions
In Latin America the practice of film co-production with Europe became significantly widespread in the 1990s. Two principal elements were at the root of the upsurge in this film co-operation during this period. The first was the proliferation during the middle of the 1980s and 1990s of European governmental multinational organisations devoted to promote film co-operations with the developing countries. The second was the emergence of co-production in television in the USA and Europe during the 1980s, from which Latin American countries have significantly benefited.
Two case studies serve to offer an insight on the types of film co-productions organised between Latin American countries and Europe. The first involves the UK television Channel Four, which financed during the 1980s a series of films made by international acclaimed directors from Latin America including Paul Leduc, Jorge Sanjinés, Martha Rodríguez, and Eduardo Coutinho. The second, embodies those films recently produced between Spain and Latin American countries, taking into account that Spain is currently leading film co-production with Latin America. Spain has become one of the most significant injectors of foreign investment in the cinema of Latin America through the ratification in 1997 of the Ibero American Aid Fund, Ibermedia.
The event starts with the screening of a 46mns documentary Latin America in Co-production (dir. Libia Villazana UK/Peru 2007), which delves into the mechanisms, pros and cons of this practice, following by a panel discussion formed by British, Spanish (to be confirmed) and Latin American film producers. It concludes with the screening of the UK premiere of the Peruvian/Spanish film Mariposa Negra (2006) by the much-admired director Francisco Lombardi.
The guests invited for the panel of discussion include:
Sandy Lieberson (USA)
Chair of Film London. He has acted as an agent for Sergio Leone, Peter Sellers, Lindsay Anderson and the Rolling Stones. From 1977 Sandy was first vice president of International Pictures and Marketing and later president of production at 20th Century Fox, supervising the international launches of, among others, the early Star Wars films, and supervising the production of films by Herzog, Roeg, Bertolucci, Zinneman, Kurosawa and Ridley Scott.
Other films he has developed and supervised include Thelma and Louise (1991), Once Upon a Time In America (1984), Bladerunner (1982), and Alien (1979). Sandy also teaches at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV) in Havana, Cuba.
Rod Stoneman (UK)
Rod is an experienced Executive Film Producer. He is currently the Director of the Huston School of Film & Digital Media at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He was Chief Executive of Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board until September 2003 and previously a Deputy Commissioning Editor in the Independent Film and Video Department at Channel 4 Television. Commissioning low-budget fiction, documentary, experiment and third world feature films.
Rosa Bosch (Spain)
Rosa is currently heading the film, TV and multimedia production activities of World Citcuit Records. She was Deputy Head of Programming at the National Film Theatre (NFT) and Deputy Director of The London Film Festival (LFF). She was a founding partner of the production and international sales company Tequila Gang with Guillermo del Toro, Laura Esquivel, Bertha Navarro and Alejandra Moreno Toscano. Her feature film productions credits include Buena Vista Social Club by Wim Wenders, Calle 54 by Fernando Trueba, El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil’s Backbone) by Guillermo del Toro, Lost in la Mancha by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. She has been a member of numerous international juries and awards, including the British Academy of Film and TV (BAFTA) and the Havana Film Festival. She is also a member of the Industry Advisory Board of Toronto International Film Festival.
Elisa Alvarez (Brazil)
Senior Executive, Corporate Finance & Production Services for Future Films, London.
Elisa also founded BR-3 Films & Music UK Ltd. in 2004, a company dedicated to film production and music supervision services. Qualified as a lawyer in Brazil and Portugal, Elisa has practiced English law in the UK.
Michael Chanan (UK) Chair of the panel
Professor in Film and Video Studies, Roehampton University, London. Michael is a documentary film-maker, and author, editor and translator of books and articles on film and media (including early cinema and Cuban cinema), and the social history of music (including the history of recording). He made a number of films for Channel Four during the 1980s, including New Cinema of Latin America (1983), Cuba from Inside (1988) and co-produced for Channel Four, Malvinas A Story of Betrayal (1983).
The cultural section is also proudly hosting the acclaimed documentary The big, fat art of Fernando Botero (UK, 2007), which plays tribute to one of the most successful artists alive, Fernando Botero. Director Richard Collings will offer Q&A sessions after the screenings.
Libia Villazana
Director Film and Culture