FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Seanna Hore, Ginsberg/Libby
seanna.hore@ginsberglibby.com

Gladys Santos, Ginsberg/Libby
gladys.santos@ginsberglibby.com
 

LOS ANGELES (April 17, 2024) — Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced today, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, that the first Global Media Makers (GMM) residency to engage Latin American filmmakers will be held April 17-21, during the 63rd edition of the Cartagena International Film Festival (FICCI) in Cartagena, Colombia.

This intensive week-long program will serve twelve talented women producers from Colombia and Venezuela whose projects explore a wide array of issues of social importance from their diverse communities. Esteemed American mentors Anne Carey, President of Production at Archer Gray, and Paula P. Manzanedo, Senior Vice President at Film Finances will lead the residency, delving into the development process and exploring the producer’s role.

“We are delighted to bring together these talented women producers from diverse regions of Venezuela and Colombia to share their experience, talk shop and compare notes on their role to bring to the screen the compelling stories they are developing,” said María Raquel Bozzi, Film Independent’s Senior Director of Education & International Initiatives. “I can’t wait to see their projects become a reality on the screen.”

The Global Media Makers Residency in Cartagena is presented in collaboration with the Cartagena Film Festival (FICCI), and Venezuelan Association for Womxn Filmmakers (JEVA) and with the support of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs, the U.S. Embassy in Colombia and the Venezuela Affairs Unit.
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The Fellows selected to the 2024 GMM Residency in Cartagena and their films are:

Colombia

 
Producer: Karol Mora Albarracín
Project Title: Luna sobre matanzas
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: Key distributes papula along the beaches of Bahía Solano. Everybody eagerly awaits the delivery until a rumor grows: papula has components of birth control.

Producer: Irina Henríquez
Project Title: Muchachos de madera (Timber Boys)
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: While a man delivers the corpses of young paramilitary men to their families, his wife searches for their son who went to war.

Writer/Producer: Ana Muñoz
Project Title: Ojos color lluvia (Rain Color Eyes)
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: Tired of living in a secluded village, Eisy yearns to return to Bogotá with her mom. The pursuit of love and freedom leads her to an experience of death and survival.

Writer/Director/Producer: Sara Nanclares
Project Title: Conejos
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: While expecting her first child, low-class teenager Laura is offered a plot of land if she gets sterilized not to have a second one.

Writer/Producer: Ana María Prado Pabón
Project Title: La piel de las naranjas (Orange Peel)
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: Bea decides to travel to her hometown to make a decision but discovers love while facing family wounds and the loss of her lands.

Writer/Director: Zulay Karina Riascos Zapata
Project Title: Nos dejaron ir al mar
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: Nacha, an Afrocaucan midwife, is haunted by nightmares, all related to the sea. She must return to it.
 

Venezuela

 
Producer: Patricia Ramírez Arévalo
Project Title: Muchachos bañándose en el lago (Kids Swimming in the Lake)
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: During constant blackouts, three siblings long to leave Venezuela and reunite with their father, who emigrated fleeing the crisis, while watching others leave before them.

Writer/Director/Producer: Argelia Bravo
Project Title: A palo patá y kunfú (Teeth, Nails & Kunfú Kicks)
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: Yadhira, a transgender woman persecuted by violence, narrates her life story through her scars.

Producer: Fernanda Espinasa
Project Title: Nadie me ve
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: Power, desire, and obsession show their most dangerous side when they meet inside a psychiatrist’s office between the doctor and his patient.

Producer: Jaimar Marcano
Project Title: Derrumbes (Fall In)
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: In a nocturnal Caracas where people mysteriously disappear, Julia must decide if she wants to continue her toxic relationship, despite the fear of fading herself.

Producer: Jerico Montilla
Project Title: Turba
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: The film explores identity and freedom, inviting a profound reflection between art and life.

Writer/Director/Producer: Giulia Jiménez Tani
Project Title: Cumaraguas
Project Type: Narrative Fiction
Logline: In the surreal salt lakes of Venezuela, a family grapples with their inevitable fate, intertwining their lives with the land’s mystic beauty and harsh realities.
 

ABOUT GLOBAL MEDIA MAKERS

Global Media Makers (GMM) is an in-depth, intensive artist development exchange program that produces residencies for international mid-career writers, directors and producers in film and television. GMM fosters networks between U.S. industry leaders and mid-career film and tv professionals around the world. GMM is a cultural diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and implemented by Film Independent.
Since 2016 the program has nurtured the careers of 168 filmmakers from the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa through the LA Residency where GMM fellows have developed their projects with the support of acclaimed entertainment industry professionals.

Over the last nine years, 27 films supported by GMM have premiered in prestigious film festivals around the world. Recent films that have been developed through GMM’s Flagship LA Residency include Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala (Berlinale 2024), Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan’s Nocturnes (Sundance 2024), Mohamed Kordofani and Amjad Abu Alala’s Goodbye Julia (Cannes 2023), Ayten Amin’s Souad (Cannes 2020, Berlinale and Tribeca 2021) and Myriam Sassine’s Costa Brava (Venice and TIFF 2021).
 

ABOUT THE BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) leads the United States’ global efforts to engage individuals through academic, cultural, professional, sports, film, music, and youth exchanges, thereby promoting peace and increasing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other nations. Through these people-to-people exchanges and programs, the Bureau supports broader U.S. foreign policy goals, including access to education, economic opportunity and equity, and societal inclusion.
 

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT

For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.

In addition to producing the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the organization supports creative professionals with Artist Development programs, grants and labs. Signature mentorship program Project Involve fosters the careers of talented filmmakers from underrepresented communities. Weekly Education events and workshops equip filmmakers of all ages and experience levels with tools and resources. Global Media Makers, a cultural exchange program produced in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, provides career-building opportunities for international film professionals. And year-round screening series Film Independent Presents delivers monthly, unique cinematic experiences to Members in Los Angeles and beyond.

For more information or to become a Member, visit filmindependent.org.