Early in the afternoon of February 8, Luis Alberto Spinetta stopped the world.

And it is inevitable for me to write today about Spinetta in this weekly editorial dedicated to the audiovisual world, because Luis Alberto scored with his incandescent presence, sublime talent and generous friendship, key moments in my journey through the thin highways of the moving image and synchronized sound.

Luis Spinetta was, is, a cosmonaut artist. While stars of the show looking to be loved by the public, in the case of Louis, was the public who wished to be loved by him, almost demanding a match with the avalanche of often passionate affection that people enshrined. And Louis loved them, lavishing in poetry, music, voice, words, pictures, laughter and even silent and invisible actions. The times I had to walk the streets with him, I saw almost every step that his fans not only came to show their admiration, they demanded love as a lover.

I met him when I was a teenager early on shaky legs, blew with the Beatles, ‘Easy Rider’ and a novice with my camera shot on 8mm film. I decided to take the stage in which Almendra had just introduced its first Long Play, on the cover of Man’s Tear, taking me his autograph and a few words stuttered. Ten years passed over phrases and scenarios until one afternoon in a sound that made Milton Nascimento in the Stadium Obras, Luis Alberto approached me when I was with Jorge Pistocchi to announce the gift of a portable video professional for our fledgling Center for Experimental Video Imaginary Express. The year was 1978, with all that that implies.

That video camera and backpack ¾ inch emerged thousand tricks, juggling and learning, today some historical characters starring in bizarre arguments scrawled on a pizza box or just being, being who they were before the camera. We talked about John Lennon, Andy Warhol and a polluted planet.

More years passed, travel, exile and universities. Fresh from different coordinates of the outside world, filmmakers and videographers, with Ralph Rothschild we embarked again on a new journey. Spinetta met us at his house and the three began to draw in the air a script for a film that would speak of the “Cosmos Spinetteano”, intoxicated with the images of the same name by Carl Sagan series.

During filming, between takes we spent hours talking. Luis was always willing to talk about physics-race I came, and the graphic artist MC Escher, who he was like me and baptized me with the last name in a while. In those days very extensive feature film that was born was to be called at first “Spinetta, the long” and eventually was reflected as “Spinetta, the video.” This movie made me a creditor of one of the greatest honors I received in my life, Luis Spinetta said: “You were the one who showed me mourn the Man of the Tear.” The year was 1986.

Anecdotally is that “Spinetta, the Video” was the first film produced in Argentina video that was shown publicly for once selling INCAA tickets, then the National Film Institute, where it only accessed the films in 35 mm.

On Saturday February 11 at 8.00 pm. INCAA digital TV will broadcast the film “Spinetta, the Video” as a tribute to Luis Alberto Spinetta.

February 21, 2012

In the article published two weeks ago we spoke from the point of view of film producers, if the film is a good deal or if that only applies to the major Hollywood studios. In this article we approach to an answer from the point of view of the exhibitors, owners, developers and managers of movie theaters. 

To locate the map of managers of cinemas, in Argentina we must first know the different categories in which they operate. At first glance we see four “sizes” of cinemas: the first category consists of the cinema complexes or complex chains, owned by corporations with large financial investment capacity that allows them to perform simultaneous releases in dozens of screens. They also show the ‘tanks’ of cinema, Hollywood blockbusters that come with a major advertising and promotional scaffolding. The second category contains the smaller chains and independent theaters, also called “art cinemas” which have privileged access to most artistic productions of lower budget and no marketing machine, and sometimes try to balance their accounts throwing hand late second priority and premiere Hollywood and European productions that add to its power some commercial artistic values. Third are the INCAA Spaces that are promoted by the state, which releases Argentine film and offer tickets at less value than the private sector. Finally there are an increasing number of small rooms and cycles organized in theaters, museums, cultural centers and other community spaces, some formally and informally and sometimes not even respecting the rights of producers and authors.

Of these four groups, over the years we have seen how three of them grew, while one is in decline, going through a crisis over the years and worsening day by day. This is the second group, separate rooms and small chains of “art-houses.” On both ends of the spectrum they do not have anyone to protect them, the independents have been sunk in the most painful distress. Complex chains are supported with broad shoulders of their corporations and Hollywood distributors; INCAA Spaces depend on the promotion and development of the State and institutional and small displays, formal and informal, have not much to lose.

A clear and recent example of this occurred on Monday February 6, at the awards ceremony FIPRESCI of Argentina. The award for Best Foreign Film was awarded to “Die like a man”, by João P. Rodrigues. The award was received by the company which distributed the film in Argentina: 791 Film. When going to receive the award, Claudina Morgulis on behalf of the distributor, announced elegantly the closure of the company. The reason was summed up in one sentence: “We closed because we fail”, but the arguments that supported that decision were devastating: over seven years, 791 local Entertainment launched fifty art films from all around the world, including Argentine directors of the caliber of Lars Von Trier, Richard Linklater, Asia Argento, Anahi Berneri, Marco Berger and many more. These films tried to break into the screens, but much of them jumped directly to DVD editions. The result: low illegal copies by unscrupulous pirates and even some video stores. And 791 Film is not the only company that has decided to retire from the market.

If distributors of art houses and independent films have that destiny, it won’t be very different to the one of the exhibitors who want to devote their screens in this kind of cinema. Both distributors and exhibitors have fallen into the same trap: the occurrence of one hundred thousand viewers in just 10 days to he BAFICI, independent film festival in Buenos Aires, which suggests the existence of an audience that the rest of the year also wants and chooses this type of film. And maybe they choose it but are not willing to pay for it. If it is true that the public is always right, then the independent film must dissapear, but if it ceases to exist, that same public that gives their back to it will go out and protest.

So, in conclusion, we should return to the original question: Is a good deal to have a cinema?

The answer is: if you are going to invest in a digital cinema with 3D capability, wide seats, tables to eat and drink, gourmet catering service and during the performance, popcorn baskets for sale, and you have the releases of the ‘tanks’ in Hollywood on your screen, then you should open a bank account with confidence, but if what you care about is playing every day the ceremony to see good movies of great authors, new productions, in the darkness of a traditional movie theater, then you are a true lover of cinema, but a bold man. May God and the cinema bless you.

January 27, 2012

When talking about the Beatles as an artistic and commercial phenomenon that changed popular music of half the planet, it is often cited as a decisive factor the legislation that was enacted at that time in England, forcing radio stations to broadcast 50% local music. Soon the world was marking the rhythm to the British beat and pop. But nobody thought that that law had been a “squeeze” to the music companies and radio stations.

Similarly, after the Second World War, countries like Italy and France legislated that most of the proceeds from their local cinemas, with Hollywood movies, was to remain in the country where they were sold tickets. No employer went out to say that there was “pressure”, but on the contrary, because this measure had the Hollywood studios invest their profits in the host country and as a result appeared huge and very famous laboratories such as Technicolor Italy, major studios theater and film productions that are now classic films beautiful, indisputable and universal cultural heritage.

However, when the Secretary of Internal Trade of Argentina refers to producers and distributors to point out the need to at least offset the balance of imports and exports of Film and TV, some tearing their hair out and say they were “tight” instead of thinking that the Argentine State subsidizes productions with which entrepreneurs can open a new and prosperous international business online.

In any branch of production, a state may subsidize part or all of an activity, their inputs, labor, costs, or provide tax benefits to increase competitiveness in the international market. Much of the film and TV produced in Argentina receive state subsidies, but not to reduce prices but to encourage production and there it not only meets the needs of the domestic market but also be exported.

It is said that God squeezes but not break you. And thank God every day. The audiovisual industry should do the same with Guillermo Moreno and all officials who insist that audiovisual entrepreneurs accept this opportunity is offered as a gift.

Por Pablo Perel

Without going into details, there are two kinds of cinema; the trade show movies or ‘mainstream’ of the Hollywood studios, and films that offer so-called independent filmmaking. The first, with major box office income, can afford the investment needed to access the conversion to digital cinema, for independent, now is just a pipe dream.

In international values, the investment required to convert a movie theater showing films 35 mm. in a Digital cinema, involves an expenditure of $ 150,000 for the projector over another 50,000 to 75,000 for server, silver screen and accessories. For a room of a complex commercial multiplex, this amount is equivalent to the income of a few weeks to a full house, but for an independent movie theater would not get a full year of continued success to finance it.

So far, while many saw that film and digital cinema 3D options were designed only from the cash register in the box office, selling tickets much more expensive to see giant robots, visceral explosions and cartoon superheroes left open the mouths filled with popcorn of adolescents, some directors considered unquestionably serious film artists as Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese or Baz Luhrmann, took advantage and emphasize the benefits of the digital world to give their films a new dimension in visual spatial processing.

It is supposed to feature films and documentaries on these and other independent directors will not be released simultaneously in hundreds of rooms for the mere fact of being filmed in 3D, and will also know that not many art cinemas are digitized. So what is the option for the public? Seeing them “flat” in conventional art galleries or worse, legal or illegal copies on DVD, Blu Ray, VOD or Internet streaming. It’s not going to be a great encouragement to independent hearings, let alone knowing that it is precisely the most demanding and discriminating, which aims to be as close as possible to the original audio-visual experience proposed by the author of each film.

To the categories of commercial cinema and independent cinema, it is added the local Argentine cinema subsidized by the State, which plays with completely different rules. Like subsidies reach to the production of each film, may also cover in the near future the costs of rooms conversion for this film. In that case, they can continue, beyond which was filmed in 3D or not, planned or not and that people choose to see them or not, unless one of these days a movie producer comes to mind get away with saying that as waiver of subsidies for electricity and gas, also give up these others.

But there is an Argentinean film that actually resigns or cannot access to state subsidies. These productions-isolated, which are related to independent films coming from outside, such as those mentioned Wenders, Herzog or Scorsese. For this kind of productions it is envisioned an uncertain future: if you shoot in 3D, may show little or nothing in that format, and if it is produced and distributed in 3D or Digital Cinema, are left out of what technology offers the moment and stripped of the resources it will bring.

Hardly this dilemma is resolved quickly, but what seems even more difficult is that the filmmakers and independent film producers down the arms with ease. It is precisely they who resist and fight more, which are almost always against all conditions, but this time are those that are proving that digital technology in film can be used for something more than just a circus show.

By Pablo Perel

January 20, 2012

Without going into details, there are two kinds of cinema, the trade show movies or ‘mainstream’ of the Hollywood studios, and films that offer so-called independent filmmaking. The first, with major box office income, can afford the investment needed to access the conversion to digital cinema, for the independents, that is just a pipe dream.

In international securities, the investment required to convert a movie theater showing 35 mm. films into a Digital cinema, involves an expenditure of $ 150,000 for the DC projector, another $ 50,000 to $ 75,000 for the server, silver screen and accessories. For a room of a complex commercial multiplex, this amount is equivalent to the income of a few weeks to a full house, but for an independent movie, the theater would not get a full year of continued success to finance it.

So far, while many saw that film and digital cinema 3D options were designed only from the cash register in the box office, selling tickets much more expensive to see giant robots, explosions, visceral and cartoon superheroes left open the mouths filled with popcorn adolescents, some directors considered unquestionably serious film artists as Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese or Baz Luhrmann, took advantage and emphasize the benefits of the digital world to give their films a new dimension in visual spatial processing.

It is supposed to feature films and documentaries on these and other independent directors will not be released simultaneously in hundreds of rooms for the mere fact of being filmed in 3D, and will also know that not many art cinemas to be to be digitized. So what is the option for the public? Seeing them “flat” in conventional art galleries or worse, legal or illegal copies on DVD, Blu Ray, VOD or Internet streaming. It’s not going to be a great encouragement to independent hearings, less alone knowing that it is precisely the most demanding and discriminating, which aims to be as close as possible to the original audio-visual experience proposed by the author of each film.

The categories of commercial cinema and independent cinema, local Argentine cinema adds subsidized by the State, which plays with completely different rules. They reach as well, with subsidies to the production of each film, the costs of conversion of rooms for this film. In that case, they shall continue, wether the was filmed in 3D or not, planned or not and that people choose to see them or not, unless one of these days a movie producer decides to give up to this subsidy.

But there is an Argentinean film that actually resigns or has no access to state subsidies. For this kind of productions envisions an uncertain future: if you shoot in 3D, may show little or nothing in that format, and if it is produced and distributed in 3D or Digital Cinema, you are left out of what technology offers the moment and stripped of the resources it will bring.

Hardly this dilemma is resolved quickly, but what seems even more difficult is that the filmmakers and independent film producers down the arms with ease. It is precisely they who resist and fight more, which are almost always against all conditions, but this time are those that are proving that digital technology in film can be used for something more than just a circus show.

Por Pablo Perel

On Thursday, January 19 begins the Sundance Film Festival and this event starts a world tour of great importance for both business professionals and the public lover of good films projected in a cinema.

Until Sunday 29th this festival will be held in Park City Utah, USA, and elsewhere, as every January since 1978. The powerful Hollywood steps back to provide a decent place to independent cinema from around the world and especially for the task of discover new talents in the film industry. In the 200 films will be screened Sundance selected from more than 9,000 titles submitted. This year they have chosen nine other major cities across the U.S. territory for the day Thursday 26 were present in each city a film director with a film, it exhibits, gave a lecture about his work and discuss with the public, a great idea when you have a truly federal conception of a cultural event.

So begins this long annual pilgrimage of filmmakers and moviegoers who walk the continents. While there are thousands of film festivals around the globe over a calendar year, some of them stand out as essential  milestones or at least by-passed places. To get an idea of ​​how this agenda continues to travel, see what we have closest:

From 25 January to 5 February, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Netherlands, will be attended by over 350,000 spectators. This festival is not only a meeting point for connoisseurs but also often the site where many directors and producers find a paved highway and fast way to finance their projects.

From 9 to 19 February, the International Film Festival Berlin, Germany, also known as the “Berlinale”. In the city of Berlin will bring together more than 115 countries competing, celebrated as one of the most famous and glamorous film festivals, with its 10 sections that lead to high-impact films like experimental cinema, avant-garde and young .

From 2 to 12 March, the International Film Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico, a key event for Latin American cinema and an excellent business opportunity that is offered in the market for the film industry of our country comes to big screen the world, generating an increasing number of spectators and foreign exchange.

From March 21 to April 15, the International Film Festival Hong Kong, China, in which more than 600,000 spectators expected. This event has evolved into one of the largest festivals in the world, with 330 titles from 50 countries, and bringing the cultures of the Far East and the West.

We return to Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 11 to 22 April to attend the BAFICI, Independent Film Festival of Buenos Aires, with an attendance of nearly 300,000 spectators eager to see new releases from around the world, with special emphasis on Argentine and Latin American cinema.

And now the King of the Festival, from 16 to 27 May, the Festival de Cannes, France, the traditional celebration of world cinema par excellence with the lovely beaches of the French Riviera, with its very famous and wealthy sections of the market, the Marché Films du, also patron of the Argentina international market version Ventana Sur, to be held in early December this year.

With the rising cost of subwaypassages in the city of Buenos Aires, we should consider that perhaps there is no longer much difference between commuting to Buenos Aires routes or travel the world enjoying the best of film art.

Pablo Perel

January 7, 2012

The change of year week surprised us with news and reflexions in the audiovisual, and all of them refer us to a superior and profound idea: the irreversibility of the pass of time.

The first news of this saga was given on December 24, when we heard about the “mona Chita” passing away at the age of 80 and due to a renal failure. The actress had her very successful debut in the beginning of the 30′s in a Tarzan movie. Her funny appearances were extended later to the TV show with the same name, starred by Johnny Weissmuller. This news may well suggest the end of an era.

Four days later, we heard about the list of 25 movies selected in the Library of the US Congress to be renewed and preserved as a cultural treasure. Among the titles we find “Bambi” of Walt Disney, “El Pibe” of Charles Chaplin, “The Lost Weekend” of Billy Wilder, and even more recent movies such as “Forrest Gump” and “The silent of the lamb”. The most surprising one in the nomina was “El Mariachi”, of Robert Rodriguez, in Spanish and with a total cost of no more than 9 thousand dollars, showing that the millionaire budgets did not impress the voters.

The consecration of objects with the rank of museum pieces is quite similar to the defunction of a living being.

Crowning this virtuous happening through time’s milestones, we get the news of the introduction by the firm LG of the largest TV in the world. An Ultra Definition (UD) panel of 84” and a resolution four times superior to the Full HD (High Definition). And this is not all; using the Android platform, it will have access to the Google TV experience, which implies being able to watch videos in improved 3D technology and being operated with a remote control that reads signs, moves, gestures and instructions written in a conventional keyboard. It is called Magic Remote.

This arc of time that goes from the aforementioned news seems to emphasize the sensation that time has passed and it will never return, and that even what is considered top of the line, ass Full HD, is as efimerous as a bird in a spring sky.

Specifically in the National spot, two remakes are announced for the 2012: “La Guerra Gaucha”, directed by Norman Ruiz, and “Mas Alla del Olvido”, which shall be directed by Fernando Spiner, creator of the recent “Aballay”. This two announcements are a clear match of what was recently mentioned.

There is much to be told of each of these films, and we shall do it. Meanwhile, and maybe still suggested with the beginning of this year signalled by the end of the count in the Mayan calendary, we should impose on ourselves as never before the saying: “Lo pasado, pisado” (“What is passed, is gone”).

Pablo Perel

December 16, 2011
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By Pablo Perel.

You are at home, you feel as comfortable as possible on a couch, chair or stool, or perhaps lie in bed and turn on the TV. From that moment, without being fully aware of it and almost without realizing it, you carry in one hand a powerful and ruthless that shakes multimillion companies and influential and glamorous entrepreneurs: the remote control.

From the moment half a century ago, when someone realized that the advertising rates, and therefore the income of a private TV channel depended linearly on the audience, the activity became one of the most fiercely competitive in human civilization, a fact perhaps only comparable to the mammalian male competition to gain supremacy over the herd, time to procreate. These struggles were winning instinctive force of low blows and dirty tricks of boxing, rather than have implemented techniques chivalry. The results of these contests gave the TV the no little deserved nickname of “boob.”

The public television stations and cable TV signals were partially immune to this struggle generating productions more intellectually more ambitious and greater respect for the intelligence of the viewer.

A few days ago under the FyMTI (Market Festival and International TV Fiction), held in Buenos Aires, we had Charo Calvo, renowned directors of the group Antena 3 of Spain, which in Europe has begun to decline and withdrawal of reality shows because the public “feels disgust of themselves to be spectators of this kind of television.”

On the other hand, a popular Sunday columnist of an centenary newspaper wrote an article in which predicted the most resounding failure resulting from the production of Digital TV contests in Argentina, based on an inconsistent equation of rating, international market and quality.

It is interesting to note that while a voice says the trend is audience are moving away from the degrading television, other voice predicts a bleak future for those who refrain from producing garbage television.

Article 53 of the Law on Audiovisual Communication Services 26,522 speaks of promoting “national audiovisual content production for all formats and media, facilitating dialogue, cooperation and business organization among economic actors and public institutions, private and academic benefit of competitiveness.” Here is the keyword of the moment: competitiveness.

It seems to be competitive today is not to see who is faster naked and more vulgar but the favor of the public and the markets tends to lean towards more enriching productions. It is true that the digital TV productions are newborn, but even more true is that people see less and less represented for those who exhibit in a boob box.

In traditional pirate movies that we used to see on TV, there was always a sea battle in which the pirates galleon showed a black flag with a white skull and femur, while the boat shooting to their opponent with gun batteries did not show clearly whether their intentions were to enforce the law or the appropriation of the spoils of the pirates.

In real life, the galleon to which all point the cannon is called Cuevana and is clearly a site that in some way is based on a business model benefits itself from connecting users to Cyberlockers ( services that store files that are accessed through a link, such as Megaupload, Rapidshare, etc..), in which films are uploaded by other users. The justice will have to say if the situation is punishable or if the page is merely taking advantage of a gap in the law, but that certainly facilitate public access to private materials which do not own their facilitators.

The issue of doubtful is the flag that flies at the mainmast of the galleon that attacks Cuevana. After the supposed demand of Telefé, there are two specific lawsuits made by HBO in the Magistrate’s Court 36, and Satellite Imaging at the National Civil Court No. 1. As is well known, they mention the rights granted by intellectual property law 11,723.

It is understood that the law is invoked to protect the copyright in Argentina, or to protect the moral, artistic and material writers, directors and composers involved in each production. These rights must be defended by the so-called management companies, Argentores, DAC and Sadaic, representing the interests of authors in every branch of the art-industry. But the applicants are not these management companies but private companies that mostly own audiovisual product licensees, which are the film or the specific number excluding copyright, owned by the authors and theirs alone.

At the same time, we know of claims that come from script writers, who are not at all or receive only meager compensation for their rights from the display, reproduction, marketing and / or licensing of works for which they are authors. The authors also report that they do not receive a penny from sales outside their own works formats. The format of a work usually includes the title, the scripts, set and costume designs, and production know-how to local success led to the production in question.

There is a lot of smoke on the water, as the song of Deep Purple says, the thundering guns are heard and not well understood under what is punching the attacker boat or who is the flag that flies on its mast.

Osvaldo Nemirovsci, General Coordinator of the Advisory Board of the Digital TV of Argentina, presented his book “The Digital Challenge in Argentine’s television”.

As Aristotle said 2,300 years ago in his text The Poetics, visual storytellers, dramatic and literary know that there is no story without a conflict. And Osvaldo Nemirovsci described with luminous simplicity, the space in which the Digital TV arrived in his new book presented to society last November 22. Thus, through the eyes of a narrator, I’ll tell you here my reading.

Under the title “Digital Challenge”, the text tells a story of hot contemporary: the birth and launch of digital television in Argentina. Such as the good stories that viewers want to see on the screen, the author puts us in the scenario: the technology, and explains in a language “suitable for all ages” what is a digital TV signal, its scope and its differences with the old analog signal. He continues the story by presenting a second scenario: the social, the traditional way in which markets introduced new consumer technology, released in conditions where its price allows its access only to the apex of the pyramid of purchasing power. It then comes the third stage of the story, the politician who decides to break the established pattern of minority access and defines the “Area of Conflict”. Here is where we see the smile of Aristotle, the story is outlined and the reader viewer is pending for the resolution of the conflict. Like any story, it has a hero who faces his opponents wielding a sword: the Law of Audiovisual Communication Services. As if it was the Excalibur of King Arthur, the law allows to break the spell of minority access, reversing the social pyramid. The Argentine State acquires more than one million digital converters and gives it on loan to the most vulnerable of the society. This outcome is presented just as festive and happy as the best classic stories we read or we narrated in childhood. It is anticipated the final scene in which the people celebrated with joy while the former antagonists, monopolies, decide to reform and join the common happiness.

Returning to reality, “Digital Challenge” of Nemirovsci is the memory of a job, the construction of an idea and a story that will be history tomorrow. In this exciting story, both spectators and television production community across the country have become the true protagonists.