/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/FILM-LATAM: Impoverished Budgets, Wealth of Ideas

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, May 28 2002 (IPS) - The advance of digital technology in filmmaking is a boon for filmmakers in the developing countries of Latin America, where the dearth of financial resources is a major obstacle that prevents their wide range of ideas for stories and images from reaching the big screen.

Digital technology is likely to have a global impact that is comparable to the arrival of films with sound in the early 20th century, says Cuban director Humberto Solis.

This new technology has progressed to the point that “it would not come as a surprise if in two years all films made are digital,” said Solis. “We directors will have to forget about touching the film.”

For the director of several Cuban film classics, including “Lucia” (1968), the use of the digital format will soon monopolise production techniques because it ensures the same quality of image and sound as the best of the traditional technologies, but at a much lower cost.

Furthermore, from the artistic perspective, the new technique speeds up the editing process and allows directors to record as many takes of a scene as they want, without having to worry about wasting film.

“I felt extraordinary freedom,” Solis commented about shooting his latest work “Miel para Och?n” (Honey for Ochin, 2001) using digital equipment. “I would shoot 40 takes of a scene and be satisfied with number 38.”

The latest production of the “Star Wars” series, “Attack of the Clones”, which recently premiered in the United States, was created entirely with digital technology. But even in Latin America there are quite a few filmmakers opting for this new approach, Solis said.

Shooting with 35 mm cameras “will soon become obsolete,” predicted the director on May 21 as he formally announced the First International Low-Budget Film Festival of Gibara.

Gibara, a coastal city 775 km east of Havana, will host the festival Nov 6-10. The event seeks to attract artists and distributors interested in cultural innovation in film, particularly those of the “independent” set.

The festival, presided by Solis, is open to films that have been made with very limited budgets, whether in video, digital or film format.

The works included in the festival are required to have been produced with “few resources and great effort” and the screenplays in competition must be accompanied by budget proposals that do not exceed 200,000 dollars.

The prize for best screenplay includes the free transfer of the movie – to be shot in digital format – to 35 mm film format, by the European company Swiss Effects, announced the festival’s general director, Sergio Benvenuto.

The five-day international exhibition will include presentations of new technologies and a workshop for shooting and editing videos – during the festival – of previously selected scripts, with a maximum length of 10 minutes.

Filmmakers who would like to shoot in Gibara can study its history, architecture, landscape and customs through the festival’s Internet site: www.cubacine.cu/cinepobre.

“The idea is to create a new type of festival, one that encourages low-cost film production, which is the inevitable route for most young people who are just getting started, and for us older people who would like to return to making films,” said Solis.

Considered one of the great directors of “new Latin American film”, Solis had not made a movie since “El siglo de las luces” (Century of Enlightenment) in 1992, based on the novel of the same name by Cuba’s Alejo Carpentier.

Solis’s return to the big screen with “Miel para Ochin” marked the Cuban film industry’s first incursion into the world of digital technology, a welcome alternative when a director has to deal with sharply limited financial resources.

“Thanks to the digital revolution we can speak of a film industry that begins to encompass the most diverse interests and ideas, and which opens the door to cultures that until now had been unable to legitimise their presence,” he said.

The “democratisation of film” is upon us, stated the director.

Susana Molina, vice-president of the First International Low-Budget Film Festival, says efforts are under way to find economical accommodations for the participants in the November event.

For those directors and artists who plan to arrive “with a backpack over the shoulder,” there are campsites ready to receive them.