LATIN AMERICA: Co-Productions Give Local Films a Global Audience

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Dec 21 2004 (IPS) - Co-productions and strong promotion efforts are essential for Latin American films to reach the major international distribution circuits, according to Chilean director Silvio Caiozzi.

"In this globalised world, you need to find strategies to ensure that you’re not isolated and only making movies for audiences in your own country," he said.

Caiozzi spoke with IPS after a screening of his latest film, Cachimba, at the 26th Havana International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, which wrapped up on Dec.17.

A Chilean-Argentine-Spanish co-production, Cachimba arrived in Havana after capturing three awards at the 30th Huelva Film Festival in Spain: best cinematography, for Miguel Abad; best actress, for Mariana Loyola; and best actor, for Julio Jung.

Cuban filmgoers were already familiar with Caiozzi’s films, primarily thanks to La Luna en el Espejo (The Moon in the Mirror), from 1990, and Coronación (Coronation), made in 2000. Both were winners of Coral Prizes at previous editions of the Havana film festival, and both, like his latest movie, were based on works by Chilean author José Donoso (1924-1996).

"Latin American cinema has made a major leap in quality over the last few years, and this has paved the way for access to international distribution channels," he said. "And most importantly, the fear of co-productions has been overcome."

Of the 21 feature-length movies in competition at this year’s Havana Film Festival, a good many were co-productions, some involving as many as four countries.

Diarios de Motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries), by Brazilian director Walter Salles, was co-produced by Argentina, Chile, Peru and the United States, while Peruvian director Alberto Durant’s Doble Juego (Con Game) was a joint effort by Peru, Spain, Cuba and Argentina.

While fully recognising the risks involved, Caiozzi believes that co-productions are a major factor in getting films seen today. "Our problem is that not many people go to the movies anymore, so the solution is exporting films, to take advantage of the international market."

In Chile, for example, with a population of 16 million, "if a movie is seen by 50,000 people, it’s considered a box office hit, but the producer will only make around 70,000 dollars out of it, for a movie that cost 700,000 dollars to make," said Caiozzi.

The director hopes that the new film industry legislation adopted in November by the government of Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, aimed at bolstering the industry’s development, will help to expand the potential for co-productions and the export of Chilean movies.

"This new law is crucial, because co-production agreements signed with different countries will only be effective if there is an institutional framework on both sides. Chile has signed a number of these agreements, but they have scarcely been implemented until now, because of a lack of legislation," Caiozzi explained.

The new law established the creation of a Chilean film board, comprising representatives of the government and of the film industry itself, ranging from producers and directors to technicians. Industry representatives make up 70 percent of the board’s members.

Caiozzi is the president of the Plataforma Audiovisual de Chile, which groups together the trade unions involved in the industry and associations of directors, producers, technicians and actors. The group participated in the discussions that led up to the drafting of the law, and was largely responsible for the large proportion of industry representatives on the board.

The new legislation also established the creation of the Audiovisual Culture Fund, through which government financing will be provided for filmmaking and promotional projects.

According to Caiozzi, another major weakness in the Latin American cinema sector is the lack of publicity. In the United States, he noted, the studios spend "14 million dollars per movie, on average, and often begin promoting films while they are still being shot."

As a result of the publicity generated, "the production costs can be recouped in about three weeks, even for a mediocre movie. No Latin American country can do this, so international film festivals are the only possible way for us to get our movies seen in the rest of the world."

Caiozzi has also come up with a novel strategy for promoting Latin American productions within the region itself. Under his proposal, the governments of each country would require their national public television networks to devote two or three minutes to a "mini-program" with updated information on the films being made and released in the Spanish-speaking world.

"I’ve thrown this idea around in a number of places. It’s really all it would take. If there’s going to be a future for Latin American cinema, we have to find a way to publicise Latin American films," he stressed.