Trip for Film Specialists in January

SPECIAL CUBAN FILM DELEGATION JANUARY 14 - 22, 2016   View this email in your browser

SPECIAL DELEGATION:  INSIDE CONTEMPORARY CUBAN FILM January 14 - 22, 2016< The Americas Media Initiative (AMI) is organizing a very specialized delegation in collaboration with Anthropologie Consulting that will focus on current trends in contemporary Cuban filmmaking. The trip is geared toward film programmers and curators, professionals in the film business and people interested in contemporary Cuban filmmaking and will provide insight and access normally unavailable to U.S. visitors. An important focus of the delegation is to help clarify how the U.S. embargo still impacts Cuban filmmaking including the complex situation for Cuban independent filmmakers � who work outside of the traditional Cubban cultural institutions � and their legal status within Cuba. Aleexandra Halkin, AMI Founding Director along with Jose Pineda, Director of Anthropologie Consulting will lead the delegation. Since President Obama’s announcement last December, AMI has received numerous requests from U.S. citizens for assistance related to filmmaking in Cuba. Because of this tsunami of interest, AMI has decided to organize our first delegation to Cuba. Due to the close working relationship AMI has with many filmmakers, delegates will meet one on one with documentary, and fiction filmmakers, and producers as well as animators and attend special screenings of their work. A unique aspect of the delegation will be meeting filmmakers living outside of Havana. Delegation highlights include: Travel to La Conchita, Pinar del Río to meet with youth who are engaged in a unique community media project, Los ChapuSerios. The project was initiated with funding from the British Embassy in 2013. Los ChapuSerios now produce programming for the local TV channel besides their own community-based work. Trip to Santa Clara to meet with Harold (Muke) Diaz-Guzman, a self-taught animator, software designer and university professor along with his award winning animation collective. Also in Santa Clara a visit to El Mejunje, a famous Cuban cultural center known for it’s support of LGBT rights for a screening of the new short documentary, Mascaras (Masks) about the lives of Ríubel Alarcón and Pedro Manuel González, two famous Cuban transformistas (drag queens). Havana meeting with award winning producer, Claudia Calvino of Producciones 5ta Avenida (Melaza, Juan of the Dead) who will discuss how 5ta Avenida functions within the restrictions and limitations of the US embargo and the lack of legal status within Cuba. Visit to the internationally celebrated International Film and Television School (EICTV) in San Antonio de los Baños, for a tour and full day of visits and screenings with Cuban faculty and students. Other Havana meetings include cultural critic Gustavo Arcos, award-winning documentary filmmaker, Ernesto Pérez Zambrano and documentary and fiction filmmakers including Rigoberto Jímenez and Marcel Beltrán. The delegation will accommodate 15 people so we encourage people to sign up early. All events and films will be translated to English. For further information please contact Jose Pineda: jepp23@acjourneys.com or (786) 955-6660. You can also visit the AC website Anthropologie Consulting, LLC does extensive work around Cuba and Cuban culture, both in the U.S. and Cuba. Anthropologie Consulting, LLC is authorized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Department of the Treasury, to organize educational and cultural delegations to Cuba. Anthropologie Consulting, LLC is registered with the State of Florida as a Seller of Travel. Registration No. ST38971.