Name: Insights into Puerto Rican Cinema
Start: 2022-07-12T18:30:00-0400
End: 2022-07-12T20:00:59-0400

An Insight into Puerto Rican Cinema is a panel that features some of the most successful and up-and-coming directors working out of Puerto Rico. In this panel, Mariem Pérez Riera (Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, Maldeamores), Macha Colón (Perfume de Gardenias, Emergencia), and Carla Cavina (Extra Terrestrials) share their experiences of making their films in Puerto Rico and the state of the Puerto Rican film industry today. Throughout their various successes and struggles on the island and in the United States, these female directors present a wide range of how Puerto Rican cinema can be defined and bring light to the systemic challenges in sustaining a film industry in Puerto Rico. Film scholar and Puerto Rican culture theorist, May Santiago, will be moderating the panel.

Panelists:

Carla Cavina is a cultural manager, filmmaker, writer and artist. She was born in the archipelago of Puerto Rico, where she lives. She obtained a Major in Visual Arts at the University of Puerto Rico in 2000. In 2002, she co-founded the ONG "El Taller Cinemático", becoming its Executive Director until 2021. At this non-profit organization, she worked with different communities, teens and international filmmakers to develop Puerto Rico's film industry with a social justice gaze. Film workshops, international events and educational films were used to achieve this goal. From 2003 to 2008, she worked for "Proyecto de Comunicación", led by the island's public broadcasting network, aimed at teaching socially marginalized communities the uses of film, mentoring and directing over 20 community short films. As a filmmaker, she wrote and directed three (3) shorts films before making "Extra Terrestrials", her first feature film. This movie received two (2) fellowships to participate in different development workshops from Ibermedia in Spain and Costa Rica. The film was realized in co-production with colleagues from Venezuela. In 2016, the movie premiered at the "Puerto Rico Queer Film Festival" and, in 2017, it had its international premiere at the "Roze Filmdagen" in Amsterdam, Holland. After its debut, the film had been shown in more than 40 international film festivals, winning the "Audience Award" in Puerto Rico, Miami, Milan and Paris. In 2017, it had its commercial release in Venezuela and Puerto Rico. As of today, the movie is available in Amazon Prime, Viendo Movies, Pluto TV, several Universities in USA and it has been written about it in several academic essays.

In 2012, she co-founded "Puerto Rico's Documentalist Asociation" and, from 2014 to 2020, she directed the "Iberoameric Film Workshop - ISLAB".
Nowadays, she is writing and developing various films and artistic projects.

Mariem Perez Riera, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her first documentary "Cuando lo pequeño se hace grande" about the Puerto Rican's fight against the US Navy bomb practice in the island of Vieques, was awarded as Best Documentary at the Havana International Film Festival and at Los Angeles International Film Festival, and received the Jurors Choice Award at the Cine Iberoamericano Festival in Argentina. In 2005 she founded her production company Maramara Films, and in 2007 she co-directed with Carlos Ruiz and edited her first feature "Maldeamores" (executive produced by Benicio Del Toro) which won several international awards including Best Opera Prima, Audience Award, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress. She has also produced and directed in Puerto Rico other awarded documentaries such as "De Puerto Rico Para El Mundo", "Diez En La Música", and Emmy winner "Croatto, La Huella De Un Emigrante". Mariem's latest biopic "Rita Moreno, Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It" premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and was released on PBS American Masters and on Netflix. She is now finishing post production on a new feature documentary about the 500 years history of the city of San Juan.

Macha Colón, director of PERFUME DE GARDENIAS is a puertorrican un-disciplined artist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Link to thiat film will be shared in the registration confirmation. Her award-winning short documentary EL HIJO DE RUBY has been shown in many international festivals. She studied Black and Puerto Rican Studies, Fine Arts, and Film and Media Studies at Hunter College in NYC where she worked as a documentary editor. She's also a cultural events producer and has performed rock/pop music with her band Macha Colón y Los Okapi in alternative venues since 2008. She's the songwriter of the song "Jayá" which has become an anthem for the queer community in Puerto Rico. An Art Matters Foundation and NALAC grantee and received the first Resiliency Award through the Arts from the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture in Chicago. She's a William Greaves fund fellow from Firelight Media, a 2021 United States Artist Fellow and is part of the Puerto Rican Artist Initiative from Northwestern University. Her first feature narrative, PERFUME DE GARDENIAS, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021 and has won awards including a Best Feature Film at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival and Guadeloupe's International Film Festival.

$10 for WIFV Members (must be logged in) and students
$20 for general public

This is an online webinar. You will receive the login information with your registration confirmation.

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