FIRST TRAVELING CARIBBEAN FILM SHOWCASE

OPENS IN BELIZE ON APRIL 11TH





PRESS RELEASE
Monday, April 2, 2007





The Caribbean Region's first Traveling Film Showcase will
be officially declared open in Belize during ceremonies at
the Bliss Institute of Performing Arts in Belize City on
the night of Wednesday, April 11th.



Sponsored regionally by UNESCO and supported by the Cuban
Institute of Art and Cinematographic Industry in
collaboration with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the
Traveling Caribbean Film Showcase is a 12-week itinerant
Caribbean Film Festival bringing together the works of
filmmakers from 14 countries. It will showcase feature
length films as well as shorts and documentaries produced
in the Caribbean and is expected to promote Caribbean
cultural identity, raise awareness of the potential of the
Caribbean filmmaking industry and contribute to the
preservation of Caribbean audiovisuals in all of its
diversity.



Over the course of eight days at the Bliss (April 11th to
April 17th), the Showcase will feature more than 30 hours
of film divided into 16 programs each approximately 2 to 2
� hours in length. According to the Chairman of the
International Organizing Committee, Cuban filmmaker
Rigoberto Lopez, the films in the Showcase's Official
Screening Program were selected from a pool of more than
110 films submitted by 21 countries.



The films, a mix of romance, drama and comedy showcase
Caribbean peoples, their culture, lifestyles, music and
carnival as well as touch on commons social issues
affecting the region such as HIV/AIDS, domestic violence,
migration and poverty.



The films are subtitled in English, Spanish, French and
French Creole and entrance to all of them plus the Opening
and Closing Ceremonies is free for the public. A copy of
the screening schedule & synopses of the films can be found
at
http://embacu.cubaminrex.cu/Default.aspx?alias=embacu.cubaminrex.cu/beliceing



The Showcase opened in St. Kitts and Nevis in February and
will end in Cuba in May with intermediate stops in 21
countries including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the
Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St.
Lucia, Haiti, the Bahamas and Belize. It will officially
close with a conference being convened by the International
Organizing Committee to discuss STRATEGIES FOR THE
COLLABORATION AND INTEGRATION OF CINEMA AND AUDIOVISUALS IN
THE CARIBBEAN which will be held as part of the
International Congress on Culture and Development at the
Palacio de las Convenciones in Havana on June 11-14, 2007.
Regional filmmakers, producers, exhibitors, distributors,
audiovisual and TV professionals, as well as governmental
authorities of Audiovisuals and Cinema in the area and
UNESCO representatives are invited to participate. (See
Conference details attached)



In Belize, the Showcase is being supported by NICH, the
UNESCO Belize Commission, the Embassy of Cuba in Belize and
Fer de Lance Productions all of whom have representation on
the Committe.



For more information or copies of film schedule and film
synopses emailed to you please contact Suzette Zayden,
Chair of the Belize Coordination Committee and Member of
the International Organizing Committee at FER DE LANCE
PRODUCTIONS at 223-5797 or email the office at
[email protected]



To participate in the conference STRATEGIES FOR THE
COLLABORATION AND INTEGRATION OF CINEMA AND AUDIOVISUALS IN
THE CARIBBEAN, please contact the organizers directly at
[email protected]