The Miami International Film Festival may be celebrating its silver anniversary this year, but it was Miami Dade College, which sponsors and organizes the event, that received the birthday gift during the festival's 25th birthday homage to itself at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday.
MDC President Eduardo J. Padron took the stage at the start of the night to announce a partnership between the school and Grupo Televisa -- Mexico's leading television broadcaster and the largest Spanish-speaking media company in the world, with four networks and more than 260 affiliated TV and radio stations.
Kick-started by a $1 million donation from Televisa CEO Emilio Azcarraga, the two institutions will collaborate on the Televisa Centre for Film and Television Production at MDC's North Campus.
ACCESS
Padron said the program, scheduled to start in the fall, ``will allow us to have access to the top industry experts, [as well as] give state-of-the-art curriculum and technology and internships and studies abroad for our students.''
''This hemispheric, premier training and development center for the Latin American and Caribbean film and television industry is something we have been dreaming about for years,'' Padron said. ``This will continue the work we have undertaken in Miami to bring to a higher level those industries that are so important to our community.''
Azcarraga, who joined Padron on stage along with Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, called the city his second home and congratulated the college in its involvement with the festival, honoring the event's contribution to the area's artistic and cultural life.
''Miami serves as a bridge between the U.S. and Latin America,'' Azcarraga said, ``and it is known as a center for media and entertainment.''
The announcement of the film school set a celebratory tone for the rest of the evening, which included a screening of Chacun Son Cinema (To Each His Own Cinema), a collection of 33 shorts by famed directors, including Gus Van Sant, Joel and Ethan Coen, David Lynch and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, expressing their feelings about cinema.
FESTIVAL HAS GROWN
Although the event was far from a sellout, with an estimated attendance of 800, many in the crowd were hard-core festival supporters from the event's inception who have watched the festival swell from an annual selection of 25 movies, all shown at the Gusman, to more than 100 spread over various venues.
Sheila Berke, of Miami -- who has attended each year with her husband Michael and today keeps track of the programming with a spreadsheet -- said she wasn't feeling particularly nostalgic. ``I don't like the glitz or the glamour or the parties. It's all about the movies for me. And although it's much harder now to plan what you're going to see, there's also a lot more to choose from. Everything's a trade-off.''
Others used the birthday occasion to pine about the past. ''I do miss [former festival director] Nat Chediak, because he used to have great films from great directors,'' said Jose Camero, of Miami. ``The fact that the festival expanded and started bringing in a lot of films from new directors is great, but now we have more than a hundred films and it's impossible to see them all.'' |
