Panama Film Makers Field of Broken Dreams

By Margot Thomas
WHEN PANAMA’S International Film Festival was first launched in 2013 launched, one of the planks in the platform presented to the government by its mentor, Henk Van Der Kolk. was that it would not only provide a cultural and tourism attraction for the country, but also help develop and expand the county’s own film industry.

Canadian film maker Van Der Kolk knew from experience what a successful festival can do. As the co-founder of the Toronto International Film Festival he watched it grow over four decades to become one of the world’s leading cine events, and alongside of it, witnessed a dramatic expansion of the Canadian film industry in all its forms, from the growth of studio space to acting opportunities, production, directing, set designing, script writing, filming and all the myriad of support activities that go into making a film, while pouring millions into the local economy.
For the Film Guild of Panama the launch was a dream come true as the Government announced in 2013 the winners of the first edition of the National Film Fund awards.
The event was held at the National Theatre, helping to building the excitement for the Second International Film Festival Panama unfolding in those days. In April 2014 the script for the second edition of the National Film Fund was repeated. Each time $2.2 million was awarded for projects chosen by the jury.
But, says a La Prensa report it turns out that the financial support never came, or only in small slices failed, according to reports from several of the winning filmmakers, Some have received part of the 2013 prize money of 2013 and others are still waiting The 2014 prize money has not been delivered say local film producers, victims of just another piece of mismanagement or malfeasance by the previous administration, and the amount involved is so small compared to the scores of millions of “irregularities” in other fields.
Now the 2015 awards have joined the list of seemingly never-never payments The film fund was approved with the first Film Act 2007 and launched in 2013 following the opening of the call for local film projects, all under the management of the Directorate of Film Industry Panama
( icine), Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Mici).
Ariadne Benedetti, director of Dicine during the previous government and currently a member of the Central American Parliament (dubbed “a den of thieves by former president Ricardo Martinelli, said that the delay in payment is due to the audits of the new administration that took office in July 2014, 15 months after the awards were made. “Unfortunately that happens when there is a change of government” he says. He explained that the winners of 2013 were given 65% of the prize and the rest would be disbursed to the extent that they were moving productions. The money was deposited in a trust.
The fund to pay is there, but what is missing is the approval of the current administration of Mici says Benedetti.

However, Benedetti did not mention that there was no money for the project in the budget of the previous administration, although at the time the National Assistance Program (PAN) was awash with money being syphoned off in the country’s biggest corruption scandal. says Stephan Proaño, director of Dicine.
A competition was made in 2014 without the money to cope, says Proaño.
Attempts to get Benedetti’s reaction got no reply.
Panama premiered five national films on the big screen in 2014 (Invasion, Queens, Breaking wave, Canal and transparent Hero) In 2015 just one(Box 25). That’s one of the sequels left by the delay and default in payments of awards from the National Film Fund 2013 and 2014, say the affected film makers.