Ventana Sur: LATC Launches The ‘Guide for Latin American Film Commissions’
Rio de Janeiro’s Latin American Training Center has launched “The Guide for Latin American Film Commissions,” a Spanish-language ebook aimed at meeting the growing demand for information to establish and operate a film commission in the region.
Presented Wednesday Nov. 30 at Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur market by LATC founder and president, Steve Solot, the new publication, available online free of charge on latamtrainingcenter.com, is a companion to the previous “Guide for Film Commissions in Brazil,” published last year by LATC.
Aimed at multiple audiences, including government officials, film and TV producers, politicians and managers, the goal of the new guide is to contribute to filling a void in the sector. In its introduction, the ebook points out that the significant increase in recent years in the number of offices in Latin America has made countries, states and cities recognize the positive impact of audiovisual activity in local economy. But the trend is facing challenges such as a disorderly proliferation of film commissions and the demand for services in quite diversified locations.
Organized in two sections, the guide first presents ten technical chapters addressing the creation, structure, administration and operation of a film commission in Latin America.
The second part includes ten articles by renowned international experts focusing on film commissions’ critical importance for audiovisual content production and their contribution to economic development and job creation.
“My basic advice to anyone interested in establishing a film commission is to first ensure that the relevant government authorities understand the needs and benefits of a film commission, and then that they will provide strong political support, as well as at least a minimum of economic support to implement the new commission,” Steve Solot told Variety.
The experts from the U.S. and Latin America that contributed to the guide include Jean Prewitt, president of the Independent Film and TV Alliance-IFTA; Kevin Clark, executive director of the Assn, of Film Commissioners International-AFCI; Nancy Haecker, president at Location Managers Guild International-LMGI, and Vans Stevenson, the MPAA’s senior vice president for state government affairs.
There are also articles by Miguel Angel Benzal, CEO of Spain’s Egeda producers rights collection society, Viviana Dirolli, legal affairs manager at Argentina’s INCAA Film Institute; Ana Aizenberg, coordinator of the Latin American Film Commission Network-LAFCN; Adrian Solar, president of FIPCA, the Ibero-American Federation of Film and Audiovisual Producers, and Joseph Chianese, executive vice president at EP Financial Solutions.
Solot, ebook coordinator and also executive director at both Rio Film Commission and Brazilian Film Commission Network-REBRAFIC, highlighted some cases of successful film commissions in the region.
“Colombia with a solid foreign production incentive, Mexico City with a strong administrative structure for issuing film permits, Rio de Janeiro with strong support by the municipal film agency and Chile with a winning public relations and marketing campaign showing off its diverse locations,” he said.
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