Shortly after returning from the Toronto International Film Festival, I went to Costa Rica. Six days beginning on September 25 were to consist of three days at Costa Rica’s MAUCC (Mercado Audio Visual Centro America & Caribe), consisting of meetings with filmmakers about their projects followed by three days of touring — our choice of one of six regions: Chorotega, North Huetar, Caribbean Huetar, South Caribbean, Brunca and Central Pacific. This event, designed and executed by the Costa Rican Film Commissioner, José Chacon — who, BTW, lives in L.A. — was a great way to get to better know “old” friends in the business as well as to meet new friends.
Part of a major country initiative of Costa Rica, Promotion of Foreign Trade (PROCOMER), hosted a trade fare of all commodities, including film. This event was a great doorway into what is happening today in Central America and the Caribbean. For instance, coffee, a major export with major sellers included a chance meeting with a luxe coffee brewer named Gerardo Arias (www.CafeDirecto.com). who taught me so much about the international marketing of coffees as well as breeding the seeds. One of my many “old” friends there, Greg Reitman of Blue Water Film Festival[1] by chance met two merchants who offered him two types of drinks to promote to his constituency at the festival. Free to him, free to the participants and great publicity for the companies: Costa Rica Rain Forest Artesian Water© and an alcohol company.
Getting to know people and their projects is the main goal and that is a pleasure, hearing people’s ideas and plans for making their vision into a movie. Costa Rica led the selection with five projects: Rainy Animal by Laura Astorga (Red Princesses), Where Do Birds Go When It Rains? by Patricia Velázquez, Space is a Monstrous Animal by Karolina Hernández, Collateral Lies by Johnny Corrales and Empty Cities by Mariana Murillo. From Nicaragua, Ariel from Morena Guadalupe, Ópera prima by Ricardo Zambrana, and Dora (director to be confirmed) participate. The selection is completed by the Hondurans Los niños perdidos by Enrique Medrano and produced by Luis Flores Alvarenga, and Fuego interior written and directed by Javier Suazo Mejía, the Guatemalan Celeste by Javier del Cid, the Cuban Exercise of Masculinity by Hanzer González Garriga, and the Panamanian PAN-AM by Brittany de Vries. At the end of the presentations, different prizes were awarded in cash and services, including advice, quotas in other laboratories, equipment rentals, and audio and video post-production services.
My prize of a year’s consulting went to Patricia Velázquez, a filmmaker who has produced and directed the feature films Dos Aguas (2015) and Apego (2019), as well as the documentary La sombra del naranjo (2016). She is the producer of the feature film Aurora (2021), directed by Paz Fábrega. She is currently finishing her third film, La piel del agua.
The project she was presenting at MUACC is called ¿Adónde van las aves cuando llueve? // Where Do Birds Go When It Rains? It’s about Lola (26) a trans woman returning to the town she left ten years ago to look for Rosa, her old flame. Lola finds out that Rosa died during labor which brings Lola face to face with the dilemma of whether to accept her motherhood in a conservative and moralistic town or to continue with her carefree, nomad lifestyle.
The project has already obtained development funds from Ibermedia and a CRFIC industry award. There is a first draft of the script and a second draft of the treatment, which was workshopped by Spanish director Yolanda Barrasa.
Patricia Velásquez explains,
For a year now, I have been meeting every week with Alina, a trans visual artist with whom I have been exploring mainly body and sexuality issues. Although Alina is very different from the character Lola, she has been a catalyst for this character.
¿Adónde van las aves cuándo llueve? is about otherness, about deep-rooted social prejudices against trans and impoverished people. Ricardo’s decision to become Lola has forced her to endure poverty and homelessness in a country where being trans is still considered sinful. Even in academic discourses, transgender people are still described as “trapped in the wrong body,” which assumes that the only valid options are binary, man or woman, and that other bodies must be modified to fit that framework.
Two visual registers will be featured in the film: a realistic one (with more contrasted photograph as well as harsher and starker ways of representation) and a magical one (which appears when the girl finds Lola and her friends). This magical approach always takes place at dawn or at dusk, a world visually marked by stars, bioluminescence or lights that represent the cosmos and the things that connect with the transcendental parts of the Universe―a space where there is no room for exclusion or hatred, or for judgment of any kind.
The rain is practically a central character within the plot, so the shooting will take place during the rainy season in Costa Rica. Most of the footage will be done in the months of June and July, and then for a couple of weeks in October when floods occur and the filming area and is practically cut off from the rest of the country. This is clearly a production challenge that requires careful creative planning.
The crew will work with natural actors, i.e., people from the Quepos community, with whom an intensive process of casting, acting training, and rehearsals will be conducted during the months prior to filming.
A handheld camera will be used. Quiet moments will be captured with smooth motion, whereas emotionally demanding moments and unstable situations for the protagonist will employ more aggressive motions. There will be an emphasis on natural, back-, and low-key lighting.
“With an audience of almost 90 million people, the countries of Central America and the Caribbean have an innovative creative capacity and with diverse and very valuable narratives,” said José Castro Chacón, Costa Rica’s film commissioner since 2016,
Among the international buyers participating in the market, important US companies such as Focus Features, Stardust Media, Indieye Productions, Blue Waters Entertainment, Tulchin Associates, New Film Makers L.A., Complete Production Group CPG, Guaraci Ventures Inc., Gravitas Ventures, Alchemist Productions, Maktub Media Entertainment, Grandave Capital, Joule Entertainment, Cine Qua Non Lab (USA/Mexico), Sotomayor Produccions and AstraCanada stand out. The Canadian Rezolution Pictures International, the Spanish 3BoxMedia International Sales, the German Romero&Braas, the Italian BeQ Entertainment and the Korean IMI Culture Group also arrive on the market in search of Central American projects. Among the buyers and potential Latin American partners are the Mexicans Catatonia Cine, Invicta Films, Alan McLane, VEV Productions and Rodrigo Antonio Martinez Bueno; the Colombians Chapinero Films and Sakana Films, the Ecuadorian Wayra Consultores & Asesores, the Brazilians FJ Productions, Brazilian Content, Movioca and Sato Company, the Peruvian Serendipia Producciones, the Uruguayan Criolla Film and Moorning by Landia, the Guatemalan Icaro Mercado Audiovisual and the Costa Ricans Mundo Cine Cinépolis Distribución and Fire Play.
[1] Founded in 2020, the Blue Water Film Festival (BWFF) celebrates UN — World Oceans Day, every June 8th and promotes San Diego, California as a hub for marine science, naval exploration and an epicenter for environmental storytelling. BWFF’s year round screening, panels, and events help to cultivate a burgeoning family-based, environmental and military community in San Diego and around the world. BWFF was founded by Greg Reitman to bridge the world of environmental activism and storytelling. It profiles a variety of events including film premieres and screenings, educational panels, high-level networking, social gatherings, and culminates with the Blue Water Awards Show.
The mission of the Blue Water Film Festival is to encourage attendees to think broadly about how climate change affects planet Earth and think deeply about the universal concerns and actions needed to bring us into balance. 50% of all film selections are non-US productions, helping to fulfill the festival mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding through film.
BWFF showcases independent film — long, short, narrative and documentary — and animated film and introduces a unique and diverse content focused on environmental storytelling to our audiences. The festival is committed to exhibiting films that express fresh voices and differing global perspectives to enlighten audiences, educate, provide invaluable exposure for filmmakers, and present inspired entertainment for the sole purpose of the environment.
Save the dates for the 5th Annual Blue Water Film Festival: March 21–24, 2024.
BWFF awards in-kind prizes to filmmakers in goods worth over $50,000 since its inception with the special laptop prize provided by Dell Technology plus editing, lens, sound gear by FILMIC Pro, Lectrosonics, Luma Touch, and others.
BWFF also presents numerous other awards, including the Eco Hero Award, the Global Citizen Award as well as Best Vision and Best Produced and more!
Set in La Jolla and surrounding areas, BWFF’s annual festival coincides with World Water Day and connects an audience of environmental activists, active & retired military, marine science educators, prospective financiers, distributors and eco lovers with rising focus on the next generation of environmental stars in the film industry. San Diego, rated one of the top 20 cities in the USA, attracts an affluent community of ocean lovers, located adjacent to the Pacific Ocean with easy access to airports, train & trolley stations.
BWFF attracts an in-person audience of approximately 5,000 filmmakers, journalists, financial executives, movie lovers, celebrities and San Diego residents, along with an international virtual streaming audience of film enthusiasts from around the world.
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