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2005 Invited Guests:
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María Lourdes Cortés Pacheco
Director, CINERGIA (Fund for Audiovisual support in Central America and Cuba)
Director, Film and Television School, Veritas University, Costa Rica |
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Estrella Hendrickson
Director, School of Informatics, Escuela Internacion de Cine y Television, Cuba |
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José Luis Herguedas Piernas
Producer, Hidden Truths (screening in Festival) |
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Rohit Jagessar
Writer and Director of “Guiana 1838” (screening at Festival) |
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Rosana Lacayo
Director, Hidden Truths (screening at Festival)
Secretary, ANCI |
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Mickey Nivelli (aka Harbans Kumar)
Director, “The Right and The Wrong” (screening at Festival) |
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Manu Savani
President, Gala Entertainment Corp., Orange, California U.S.A. |
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Caterina Sgueglia
Professional Hairdresser and make-up artist
Festival Seminar Presenter: “Creating Movie Magic with Make-Up” |
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Albert Xavier
Director, For Her, A Different Man & Red Passport (screening at Festival)
Festival Production Workshop Presenter: “How to Make a Film with Little or no money” |
Guest Bios
María Lourdes Cortés Pacheco
Director, CINERGIA (Fund for Audiovisual support in Central America and Cuba)
Director, Film and Television School, Veritas University, Costa Rica
A historian of Costa Rican and Central American film as well as a researcher and professor at the University of Costa Rica, María Lourdes Cortés Pacheco is also the Director of the Film and Television School of the Veritas University and that of CINERGIA, an audiovisual support fund for Central America and Cuba.
She was formerly the Director of the Costa Rican Center for Film Production (2002-2004) and has won the Aquileo J. Echeverría Prize for Essays with her book Amor y traición, cine y literatura en América Latina ( Love and Betrayal: film and literature in Latin America ) and the Joaquín García Monge,Prize for cultural diffusion with her work as Cultural Attache for the Embassy of Costa Rica in France. Outstanding also are her books El espejo imposible. Un siglo de cine en Costa Rica (The impossible mirror: A century of film in Costa Rica), San José, Farben Grupo, Normal Edition, 2000 and La pantalla rota. Cien años de cine en Centroamérica (The broken screen: 100 years of film in Central America), México, Taurus (in print). |
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Estrella Hendrickson
Director, School of Informatics, Escuela Internacion de Cine y Television, Cuba
| Since 1987, Estrella has been a Computer Specialist at the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de Los Baños (EICTV) where she is currently the Director of the School of Informatics. Her work in computer and film began as early as 1971 when she began in the Computer Department of the Cuban Institute of Cinematic Art and Industry, first as a System Programmer, then a System Analyst and finally as Head of the Department of Analysis and Programming before transferring to the EICTV in 1987. E strella has a degree in Cybernetics & Mathematics from the University of Havana, skills training in Avid editing and a Post Graduate Degree in Multimedia Conception from the School of Image and Sound in Madrid, Spain. |
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José Luis Herguedas Piernas
Producer, Hidden Truths (screening in Festival)
Born in Barcelona, Spain, Jose Luis Herguedas Piernas is a co director of “Gota Films “ an independent film production company in Nicaragua. Gota Films has produced many documentaries such as: Ana Clara, Uniting Hopes and Hidden Truths
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Rohit Jagessar
Writer and Director of “Guiana 1838” (screening at Festival)
| The filmmaking journey of the writer and director of GUIANA1838 began right from his early years when his grandmother would tell him tales of how they came on ships from India to the British Caribbean. The story telling usually happened after dinner when the family would sit around an old lantern and listen as Grandma went into great detail, narrating tales of a time when the mighty British Empire owned colonies in the British West Indies. She would tell her family about the time when millions of helpless men, women and children were left for want so that sugar production would prosper for the British plantation owners. Rohit listened attentively to the stories as his Grandmother described the people and their struggles on the land she once worked and lived on. As the years went by, the stories of his ancestors would remain with Rohit. Seven years ago, in 1997, he started writing the GUIANA1838 screenplay, telling the story of the people of the land once known as British GUIANA in the Caribbean. |
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Rosana Lacayo
Director, Hidden Truths (screening at Festival)
Secretary, ANCI
Rosanna Lacayo is a graduate of Madeira School in Virginia, USA with a degree in Economics from Duke University, North Carolina (USA). She joined the now defunct Nicaraguan Film Institute (INCINE) during the eighties, where she made 16mm documentaries and videos and has won awards in different film festivals such as Montreal, Canada (1985), Leipzig, East Germany (1987), and Bilboa, Spain (1988). She is currently a member of the Nicaraguan Cinematography Association (ANCI), Nicaraguan Cultural Fund and founder of GOTA FILMS, an independent film and video producer.
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Mickey Nivelli (aka Harbans Kumar)
Director, “The Right and The Wrong” (screening at Festival)
| 41 years ago Harbance Kumar, a youth from India landed in Trinidad and married a Trinidad girl Chand Kumar. Before coming to Trinidad he had worked in various film production sectors in BOMBAY, INDIA now known as the BOLLYWOOD of India. While in Trinidad he became one of the biggest film distributors in the West Indies but without a single creative outlet of movie making in the entire West Indies, he felt like a fish out of water. But he a business in the West Indies and a marriage to uphold so he could not return to BOLLYWOOD to quench this thirst. |
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Bringing BOLLYWOOD to the West Indies was a very difficult task which no one, even with millions of dollars in resources had the guts to do. Harbance Kumar had less money but more guts. He mortgaged his house, cars etc. to raise some money. He could not afford to hire a director, so he decided to direct the film himself. He could not afford to hire foreign trained actors and actresses, so he had to make do with locals who had never ever even seen a movie camera. Through trial and error, mistakes and corrective measures, the first ever West Indian feature film, "The Right and The Wrong ", came into being. Harbance`Kumar went on to make more movies. His “ Girl from India” & "Man from Africa", were even more successful and Harbance Kumar began being hailed as the pioneer movie- maker of the West Indies and the one with the best track record. So why did he suddenly change his name and become MICKEY NIVELLI? His book recently published book "Echoes of Love from Heavens Above" answers this question.
Manu Savani
President, Gala Entertainment Corp., Orange, California U.S.A.
| Manu Savani comes from a family that has been involved in the film distribution business for 70 years. His company Gala Entertainment Corp pioneered the importing of Indian films for distribution in the USA and Canada and later in Latin America, the UK and various overseas markets. In the mid 1980s, when India liberalized the importation of Hollywood films, Manu Savani also pioneered the exportation of American motion picture films to India. Since the 1990s, Manu has been a consultant on India for the American Film Marketing Association (AFMA), is the exclusive agent for Twentieth Century Fox products for East Africa and also exports independent Hollywood films to foreign markets, specializing in developing nations including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Seychelles, Fiji Islands, and Nigeria. He is also a buyer and seller of DVD and Television rights of Indian and American films and a member of the Belize International Film Festival Planning Committee. |
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Caterina Sgueglia
Professional Hairdresser and make-up artist
Festival Seminar Presenter: “Creating Movie Magic with Make-Up”
“I've always believed that makeup has no rules. It's a combination of imagination, creation and practiced technique. Don't be afraid to explore or test new makeup visions. Take a risk and step outside of the box.”.
Caterina’s professional experience includes working in films and videos, as well as providing makeup applications for many weddings in Italy as well as the United States. Trained at Bare Essentials in New York, Caterina currently works with Bare Essentials makeup as the head makeup artist in Latham NY. She has also worked with the Roberto Minelli, Pazzo Salon in Naples, Italy. In the last few years and is the key makeup artist for the music video, Lamento Boliviano, with Amarfis. Caterina is currently working with Director Albert Xavier on one of his Independent short films, and as been contracted to provide services to other music videos he will be directing. “It's the challenges of working with different lighting, mediums and creative teams that keeps me in love with my profession.” |
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Albert Xavier
Director, For Her, A Different Man & Red Passport (screening at Festival)
Festival Production Workshop Presenter: “How to Make a Film with Little or no money”
| Albert Xavier was born in New York City in 1970 and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. After graduating from the film school of NYU, he devoted his time to producing films and television shows creating visual content primarily for the Latino market but with world wide appeal such as “GalaSCENE” (1999) for Galavision Network and “RumbaCaliente” (2004/05) which is presently airing on digital satellite on SuperCanal Caribe. Then he was added to the directorial roster of Resurrection Blvd. (2000) for Showtime Networks and more recently Law and Order. As a Consulting Producer, he committed his talents to the Spain/Dominican Feature Film, “La Victoria” which was shot last year and premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Xavier continues to direct Latin music videos of various artists like: La India , Frankie Negron, King Chango, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Fulanito, Oro Solido and others. In addition to his reel, he has produced a series of industrial commercials for Nike, Umbro, Diesel Clothing and Macy's amongst others. |
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Albert Xavier has also written, directed, and produced 3 short films entitled “For Her”,“Quarter To Ten” and “A Different Man” and his first feature film entitled, “Red Passport /Pasaporte Rojo”. “Red Passport” was presented at more than 30 international film festivals in 2003/2004, winning the Audience Award at Lincoln Center, Best Director Award at the Boston Latino Film Festival and the nomination of a Cassandra Award in the Dominican Republic. This film has made Xavier respectfully known in the Dominican Republic, Spain and the United States for rising in the industry as a Latino independent filmmaker.
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