VENEZUELA:
Petrodollars for Local Film Industry
Humberto Márquez

CARACAS,  (IPS) - The film industry in Latin America, plagued by endemic poverty, has found an oasis in Venezuela, where the film institute plans to distribute us$3.7 million dollars to 26 filmmakers this year.

"Up to 98 percent of the movies we see in Venezuela are from the United States. We see and recognise ourselves on a street in Los Angeles, and not on the streets of San Juan de Los Morros or Mérida (cities in central and southwestern Venezuela), where we really live," Luis Girón, the president of the governmental but independent film institute (the Centro Nacional Autónomo de Cinematografía - CNAC) told IPS.

The projects selected to receive CNAC funds were two feature-length films, two others that needed financing to make their completion possible, two opera primas, eight documentaries, eight short fiction films, and two short documentaries, one of which is a co-production with Cuba.

The beneficiaries were selected from a total of 157 projects by CNAC commissions in which the filmmakers union participated. "We don't lay out guidelines for a certain kind of film to be produced, we don't push a specific bias; we just want to be shown as we are," said Girón.

"Last year, 11 Venezuelan films premiered in commercial cinemas," said the official, "and at one point, there were as many as four nationally-produced films showing in local theatres. That is unprecedented."

One of the films, "Francisco de Miranda" by Diego Rísquez, opened in August in 35 of the country's 400 movie theatres and surpassed Hollywood blockbuster Superman Returns as the biggest box office hit. Francisco de Miranda (1750-1816) was a Venezuelan revolutionary considered a forerunner of Latin America's independence heroes.

In Venezuela, "it's difficult and costly to make films, due to a number of factors, ranging from a lack of funding to the ever-insufficient support from the private sector and the state," Girón, organiser of the Festival of Venezuelan Film held in Mérida, told IPS. The 2006 version of the festival presented just 25 feature-length films produced in the last eight years.

"There are films made several years ago that have not even been screened yet," said Girón. "But we are trying to move forward in terms of legislation, marketing, production and financing."

The "Villa del Cine", built last year 30 km east of Caracas, will open this year, offering soundproof studies fully equipped with lighting, audio and video equipment, and facilities for casting, wardrobe, and post-production, with preferential conditions for local film, video and TV producers.

The 2,400-square metre complex has cost 13 million dollars so far, and the government plans to earmark another 11 million dollars to bring it up to fully functioning condition.

Meanwhile, Amazonia Films, Venezuela's state distribution company, opened last year, and has acquired films from Latin America, Europe and Asia.

On average, "just 20 cinemas in Venezuela show our productions beyond the one week a year that they are obliged to do so by law," said Girón. "What would be ideal would be for at least one screen in each big shopping centre or mall, where the major cinema chains are concentrated, to be dedicated to alternative, non-Hollywood fare," he added.

The board of directors of the CNAC decided to shorten production times, "and our new working rules set an 11-month timeframe for the production process, with the hope that if a filmmaker begins to shoot in January, we could be screening the film by December," said Girón.

In previous years, feature-length films have taken an average of 41 months to produce in Venezuela. "There is a great distance separating the conception of the project from the spectator, which is discouraging to filmmakers," he said.

For people who work in filmmaking in Venezuela, it is a source of income for only two, three or four months a year, while the rest of the time they work in advertising or other areas. "The local industry will never develop this way," complained Girón.

"Large-scale audiovisual production by independent groups has not yet started in this country, but there are hopes that it will, and a cushion of support is being created for the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers," said documentary-maker Ángel Palacios.

Swedish-Venezuelan filmmaker Solveig Hoogesteijn, who in 1987 set a local box office record for her crime film "Macu", and last year had another hit, "Maroa", a story based on music and love, stressed to IPS that "you cannot make a living through filmmaking in Venezuela, not even if you have a big hit."

She cited the example of the award-winning Elia Schneider, who won 15 prizes in 2000 for her film "Huelepega" (Glue Sniffer), which made 1.6 million dollars in box office earnings but ultimately left her with a profit of less than 40,000 dollars.

Girón said the aim was to produce a wide range of productions, from short films targeting young audiences to co-productions in association with film industries and marketing networks in the rest of Latin America, particularly the Mercosur (Southern Common Market) trade bloc, whose founding members -- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- accepted Venezuela as a fifth full member a year ago. (