Some thirty Ecuadorian filmmakers look for a window to sell | Culture
Ecuadorian Fiction Seeks Buyers for Movies Ashes Y The bad horto in Ventana Sur, the most important audiovisual content market in the region, which is based in Argentina. The feature films by Juan Sebastián Jácome and Gabriela Calvache are part of the 150 Latin American and European films that will be screened at this event organized by the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts of the southern country. the Marché du Film of the Cannes Film Festival. "The intention is to present the film to different international buyers to find new commercial spaces. Ventana Sur is a sales and business space, it is a territory for producers, agents and distributors ", explains Jácome.
Ecuador returns to this market after a break of two years. The Film and Audiovisual Creation Institute (ICCA) accompanies a group of 30 Ecuadorian filmmakers (18 of them travel with financial support from the entity). "Any movie or film project has great possibilities to find partners in this space. In addition to the film institutions of other countries, all the distributors of content in the world, producers and sales agents are present ", says Mauricio Cadena, director of diffusion of the ICCA.
This institution, previously called the National Film Council, suffered a cut in 2016 and then a transformation. In its new phase, it has launched a support policy for local filmmakers to reach the international spaces where businesses such as Ventana Sur are closed. "We want to accompany them to make a sale or eventual co-production," says Cadena.
For many this is their first time in this content market. This is the case of José Espinoza, a filmmaker of the Kichwa people who used to travel around the world as a handicraft merchant. "I used to carry merchandise to sell in my suitcase, ten years later I went back to a market, but to a different one and now I have my first movie", tells the director of the documentary about indigenous identity, Hua hua.
Andrés Garate, on the other hand, carries in his luggage the idea of making the film adaptation of the novel Night Cavalcade of the Ecuadorian writer Eliécer Cárdenas. "The film is genre thriller and we would like to generate contacts in a matter of co-productions and take it to new entertainment windows ", explains the young filmmaker.
The exhibition at Ventana Sur is especially useful for small production houses, which have premiered locally and with limitations some film and seek support for a second project. "Being there allows us to reach more sources of funding, it is important because the cinema moves more than anything by co-production", says Valeria Suárez Rovello, from Gallera Producciones, who premiered this year the documentary of a neighborhood boxer and bring to the market the idea of making a documentary with the Afro-Ecuadorian community.
For the production company María de los Ángeles Palacios, who comes to Ventana Sur every year, being present in the market is positive and helps to weave networks, even if there are no tangible rewards for the ideas they themselves have. "You know how it is produced elsewhere and you can partner for other people's projects," he says.
It is still not common for the exercise to occur in reverse, that is, not many seek to rely on Ecuadorian producers to take a film project forward. Cadena, however, says that the possibility of providing funds for minority co-production is already on the table. "The Film Commission, which is in the Ministry of Tourism, has the job of selling our country, as an optimal destination for filmmaking, and the subject of discounts or tax incentives is now on the table, there are several initiatives that begin to shoot. "
