Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

/ARTS WEEKLY/ FILM-CUBA: Low-Budget Goes to Paris

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jun 10 2003 (IPS) - France will be the destination of the best films shown at the first International Non-Budget Film Festival, which recently drew directors from 23 countries of the Americas, Asia and Europe to the eastern Cuban city of Gibara.

The films selected to represent this unique festival will be shown in three movie theatres in Paris later this year, and theoretical materials will accompany the presentations, says Sergio Benvenuto, director of the Gibara event, which aimed to promote low-cost film production.

"It is a way of gaining access to the circuits where this type of audiovisual art can be distributed," Benvenuto said in a conversation with IPS.

More than 100 films participated in the Gibara festival Apr. 21-25, and most were made using digital technology – and with very limited economic resources for production.

The prizes for this first contest of low-budget films, intended to provide the filmmakers with equipment, scholarships and financing, went to works produced on this socialist-run island and to films from Argentina, Brazil, France, Iran, Mexico, Spain, United States and Uruguay.

The top honours went to "Vaga-Lumen", by Brazilian director Gilson Vargas, and "Last Ball", by U.S. director Peter Callahan, while the grand prize for screenplay went to "Prometeo deportado" (Prometheus deported), by Costa Rica’s Fernando Mieles.

The documentary "Siyamo", by Iran’s Mahmoud Reza Sani, took the Cesare Zavattini Grand Prize, which included 3,000 dollars for leasing audiovisual equipment for the filming or post-production of the director’s next work.

"These are practical prizes that contribute to the continuity of the directors’ efforts," explained Benvenuto, adding that the Non-Budget Film Festival provides filmmakers with greater knowledge about the tools that will help them reduce the costs of producing their art.

The second edition of this unique event will likely maintain authorisation to present films that are unfinished due to lack of resources. "This is only possible with digital film," said the festival director.

Also to be kept in place is flexibility as far as format and language, such that films with subtitles in English or French will be accepted if Spanish subtitles are not possible.

"We are going to take the liberty of continuing to be flexible. We don’t want to exclude good material for reasons of format or language," Benvenuto said.

Humberto Solás, president of the Non-Budget Film Festival and director of "Miel para Ochún" (Honey for Ochún), the first Cuban film to be produced entirely in digital format, has repeatedly said that making "low-budget films" in no way means making films that lack artistic quality.

In his opinion, it is simply a matter of filmmaking with limited resources, which can be done in poor and rich countries alike, whether through government-run programmes or through independent or alternative channels.

The reduction of production costs is made possible by using new technologies, which include digital video and subsequent transfer to 35 mm film, according to Solás.

Digital technology will "gradually democratise the profession by undermining the elitist nature that has characterised this art, which is inexorably linked to the major film industry," he said during the Gibara festival.

Participants in the Non-Budget Film Festival agreed that holding the event in that small city of Holguín province achieved an intimacy with the place and its people that should be maintained.

"A warm climate was created, propitious for the sharing of experiences and far from the famous stars. The entire town, including the government institutions, contributed and participated," Solás said.

Gibara, with some 17,000 inhabitants, was the scenario for "Lucía", the film Solás made in 1960, a positive experience that prompted the idea to hold the festival there.

The Non-Budget Film Festival of Gibara was the first truly global film event to be hosted by Cuba. The New Latin American Film Festival of Havana, which has been held annually for more than 20 years, is regional in scope.