The short version of the story goes... while doing some location scouting for Hannibal, 8 years ago, in the Dominican Republic, Vin Diesel met with then-president Leonel Fernandez at his request, to discuss ways to bring Hollywood and filmmaking in general to the island. In response, Diesel told Fernandez that, while opening up a film studio in the country would be awesome, it wouldn't do much good if there's no one there to instruct the people. And thus, Diesel launched the One Race Global Film Foundation (named after his One Race Films production company), whose programs include a summer Intensive film workshop that's said to be modeled after the Media Workshop that...
- 8/28/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
June 11, President Leonel Fernandez, in a special activity at the National Palace, delivered the first two certificates, one to the first foreign movie to apply for the fiscal incentives as offered by the new law, and the other to the first Dominican film done under the new law. The foreign film was The Truth with Andy Garcia as Actor and Executive Producer, and the Dominican film was El Rey De Najayo (The King Of Najayo Jail).
- 6/20/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Film In The Dominican Republic
Here in Guadalajara where we are participating in the Industry events, we spoke at length with Ellis Perez, the Director of DGCine, the government cinema industry organization for the Dominican Republic. Their new law on international and domestic production is so favorable that whereas for the last 15 years, there has been an average of 2 productions a year, in 2012 there will be 12-15 productions completed.
Six months ago priority #1 was how to get films to shoot in the Dominican Republic. Now the #1 priority is how to train Dr youth for industry jobs – mainly in production, especially crew, to provide the basics for international producers going there to shoot.
They are looking for serious small filmmakers to make the $1-3 million films there to use their local people.
Indomina, the same company as the new U.S. distribution and international sales company whose acquisitions VP Rob Williams recently acquired the Sundance titles Luv (Isa: Hollywood Studios International), Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (Isa: Indomina) and The Imposter (Isa: Protagonist) (and parenthetically an offshoot of the sugar company Domino) in partnership with Pinewood Studios in the U.K. is one of two organizations involved in the training And is one of two companies building a studio with soundstages there.
In Cuba this December, Perez and Rafael Rosal Paz, the new Director General of Eictv (Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV, the international film school founded by Gabriel Garcia Marques with his Nobel Prize money) made the first agreement of its kind to certify the training. Eictv will help with training by sending 4 of its professors to Dr to train 24 high level students in an intensive 3 week program in shooting, sound, lighting, etc. This will take place in April and again in the summer to prepare professionals for work on Dr productions in the year 2013.
The Dr markets for production are diversified. At least 3 Spanish productions will shoot there in the coming 12 months. Now prepping is The Life of Julio Iglesias (the singer who lives in Dr). It will shoot in 6 weeks using Indomina as the local producer.
In addition 3 to 4 French movies will be completed soon. The first was completed January 2012 by producer Sergio Gobbi (Dracula 3D) who is completing his second film there.
Studio 37 from Paris is doing film on Pablo Escobar in April. Studio 37 is related to the telecom Orange which is based in Paris but has operations in Dr as well.
Another production, The Truth, now in post is a film produced by Andy Garcia starring Eva Longoria and Forrest Whittaker and directed by Damian Lee from Canada who may return with a second film this year.
An additional 4 – 5 films from North America, to be produced by Indomina and 4 -5 Dominican films will round out the 12-15 feature productions for the year.
The new law which is enticing all these productions provides support for Dominican local production as well as for foreign productions.
For Dr local movies, a 25% income tax return is provided to local businesses for investment in movies. For example, a company that owes $5 million in taxes can invest $1.5 million (25%) in a film rather than paying the same in taxes.
The Dr President, Leonel Fernandez, sees this as a way to increase production, generate new jobs, and open the door to opportunities to young Dominican talents of all sorts entering the movie industry. It will also bring in foreign investment as well as promote tourism by making Dr a destination. It is already #1 in tourism among the Caribbean nations with 4 million visitors a year who generate $4 billion income to the Dr.
For foreign film production, for 25% of the local spend in the Dr, with a minimum spend of $500,000, whether or not the entire production or only part of it is done in the Dr the government will provide a transferable tax credit certificate which is buyable by local Dr banks and financial institutions, including Indomina and Palmera Pictures which is owned by Capcanna, a tourist company. In other words, while the government will not give 25% in cash, that amount can be paid to the producer in a buyout.
And in addition to this 25% transferable tax credit certificate, there will be an exemption from paying the normal Vat of 16% usually charged for most items and services for films. (Some items will not be exempt)
Like Indomina, Dr real estate investor Cap Cana is also building a studio there which will be completed by the end of 2013. The two studios will be the first studios built in the Caribbean. Cap Cana also participates in the Dr Global Film Festival (whose programming consultant is our own Nicole Guillemet), hosting “Movies Under the Stars”.
I asked if all these wonderful incentives, plus Dr’s lower infrastructure prices (hotels, etc) were subject to changes in the government. Ellis allowed for the possibility and states he will be ready to leave this government appointed post on August 16 when the new government takes office (after the May election), but it seems doubtful to him that this will occur. Of the two candidates for President, the incumbent has the leading edge. If President Fernandez wins re-election, the status quo will prevail. His opposition was President two terms ago and Ellis Perez was his Minister of Tourism. Furthermore, both candidates favor the current law. Ellis himself is not political, belongs to no party and was appointed to this post in June 2011. While he is prepared to leave August 16 if need by, he really is aiming to stay for the next five years.
Here in Guadalajara where we are participating in the Industry events, we spoke at length with Ellis Perez, the Director of DGCine, the government cinema industry organization for the Dominican Republic. Their new law on international and domestic production is so favorable that whereas for the last 15 years, there has been an average of 2 productions a year, in 2012 there will be 12-15 productions completed.
Six months ago priority #1 was how to get films to shoot in the Dominican Republic. Now the #1 priority is how to train Dr youth for industry jobs – mainly in production, especially crew, to provide the basics for international producers going there to shoot.
They are looking for serious small filmmakers to make the $1-3 million films there to use their local people.
Indomina, the same company as the new U.S. distribution and international sales company whose acquisitions VP Rob Williams recently acquired the Sundance titles Luv (Isa: Hollywood Studios International), Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (Isa: Indomina) and The Imposter (Isa: Protagonist) (and parenthetically an offshoot of the sugar company Domino) in partnership with Pinewood Studios in the U.K. is one of two organizations involved in the training And is one of two companies building a studio with soundstages there.
In Cuba this December, Perez and Rafael Rosal Paz, the new Director General of Eictv (Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV, the international film school founded by Gabriel Garcia Marques with his Nobel Prize money) made the first agreement of its kind to certify the training. Eictv will help with training by sending 4 of its professors to Dr to train 24 high level students in an intensive 3 week program in shooting, sound, lighting, etc. This will take place in April and again in the summer to prepare professionals for work on Dr productions in the year 2013.
The Dr markets for production are diversified. At least 3 Spanish productions will shoot there in the coming 12 months. Now prepping is The Life of Julio Iglesias (the singer who lives in Dr). It will shoot in 6 weeks using Indomina as the local producer.
In addition 3 to 4 French movies will be completed soon. The first was completed January 2012 by producer Sergio Gobbi (Dracula 3D) who is completing his second film there.
Studio 37 from Paris is doing film on Pablo Escobar in April. Studio 37 is related to the telecom Orange which is based in Paris but has operations in Dr as well.
Another production, The Truth, now in post is a film produced by Andy Garcia starring Eva Longoria and Forrest Whittaker and directed by Damian Lee from Canada who may return with a second film this year.
An additional 4 – 5 films from North America, to be produced by Indomina and 4 -5 Dominican films will round out the 12-15 feature productions for the year.
The new law which is enticing all these productions provides support for Dominican local production as well as for foreign productions.
For Dr local movies, a 25% income tax return is provided to local businesses for investment in movies. For example, a company that owes $5 million in taxes can invest $1.5 million (25%) in a film rather than paying the same in taxes.
The Dr President, Leonel Fernandez, sees this as a way to increase production, generate new jobs, and open the door to opportunities to young Dominican talents of all sorts entering the movie industry. It will also bring in foreign investment as well as promote tourism by making Dr a destination. It is already #1 in tourism among the Caribbean nations with 4 million visitors a year who generate $4 billion income to the Dr.
For foreign film production, for 25% of the local spend in the Dr, with a minimum spend of $500,000, whether or not the entire production or only part of it is done in the Dr the government will provide a transferable tax credit certificate which is buyable by local Dr banks and financial institutions, including Indomina and Palmera Pictures which is owned by Capcanna, a tourist company. In other words, while the government will not give 25% in cash, that amount can be paid to the producer in a buyout.
And in addition to this 25% transferable tax credit certificate, there will be an exemption from paying the normal Vat of 16% usually charged for most items and services for films. (Some items will not be exempt)
Like Indomina, Dr real estate investor Cap Cana is also building a studio there which will be completed by the end of 2013. The two studios will be the first studios built in the Caribbean. Cap Cana also participates in the Dr Global Film Festival (whose programming consultant is our own Nicole Guillemet), hosting “Movies Under the Stars”.
I asked if all these wonderful incentives, plus Dr’s lower infrastructure prices (hotels, etc) were subject to changes in the government. Ellis allowed for the possibility and states he will be ready to leave this government appointed post on August 16 when the new government takes office (after the May election), but it seems doubtful to him that this will occur. Of the two candidates for President, the incumbent has the leading edge. If President Fernandez wins re-election, the status quo will prevail. His opposition was President two terms ago and Ellis Perez was his Minister of Tourism. Furthermore, both candidates favor the current law. Ellis himself is not political, belongs to no party and was appointed to this post in June 2011. While he is prepared to leave August 16 if need by, he really is aiming to stay for the next five years.
- 3/5/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
I like this title, so I found the news.
During our recent interview with Ellis Perez, the Director General of the Dominican Republic's film organization DGCine which you can read tomorrow, he mentioned an interesting factoid about Dr. Aside from its being the site of Christopher Columbus' second landing in 1492 and his naming the country Hispanola, its being the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, its sharing 1/3 of the island with Haiti, and its reign of terror by the dictator Trujillo from 1930 until his assassination in 1961, there was one good act performed by El Jefe. That was his open-door policy which accepted Jewish refugees from Europe, Japanese migration during the 1930s, and exiles from Spain following its civil war. In 1939 Trujillo took in German and Austrian Jewish refugees and gave them a safe haven in Puerto Plata province's town Sosua where many still live or have returned after being educated abroad. Another coincidental connection of the Dr to the Jews is that the current President Leonel Fernandez spent most of his childhood and teenaged years in Washington Heights during its transition from being a German Jewish neighborhood to becoming the Dominican neighborhood it is today.
And speaking of New York, here is a second Jews in the News item which also includes a doc about Sosua!
The New York-based Foundation for Jewish Culture has granted finishing funds to six documentaries.
Finishing funds ranging between $12,000 and $40,000 have recently been granted to six documentaries. The funds are designed to enable the filmmakers to pay licence fees for music and archival footage, complete additional editing and shooting and build audience awareness through outreach and engagement strategies.
The grants fall under the Foundation’s Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film which supports projects expanding understanding of the Jewish experience. 80 projects made applications this year and the final six recipients were selected by a panel including Moma’s Sally Berger, filmmaker Nicole Opper, film critic George Robinson and Daniella Tourgeman from the Jerusalem Cinematheque/ Israel Film Archive.
The fund has supported the completion of over 80 films since 1996 including Waltz With Bashir, Budrus, William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe and The Rape Of Europa.
The winning projects are:
· Sosua: Dare To Dance Together directed and produced by Peter Miller and Renee Silverman, which follows Jewish and Dominican teenagers over the course of the year as they create a musical theatre piece about German Jews finding refuge in the Dominican Republic in the late 1930s.
How To Re-Establish A Vodka Empire directed by Dan Edelstyn, which traces the history of the film-maker’s Jewish grandmother who fled the Bolshevik revolution and settled in strife-torn Belfast.
· Miss World directed by Cecilia Peck (Shut Up And Sing), which is the story of Israeli beauty pageant queen Linor Abargil and her crusade to combat sexual violence against women.
· My Father Evgeni directed and produced by Andrei Zagdansky, follows the filmmaker’s history working with his father for the Kiev Popular Science Film Studios.
· The Return directed and produced by Adam Zucker (Greensboro: Closer To The Truth), which follows four young Polish women who were raised Catholic only to discover that they were born Jewish.
· Watchers Of The Sky directed by Edet Belzberg (Children Underground) which interweaves stories of four visionaries with the journey of lawyer Raphael Lemkin who drafted and pushed through the Un Genocide Convention.
During our recent interview with Ellis Perez, the Director General of the Dominican Republic's film organization DGCine which you can read tomorrow, he mentioned an interesting factoid about Dr. Aside from its being the site of Christopher Columbus' second landing in 1492 and his naming the country Hispanola, its being the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, its sharing 1/3 of the island with Haiti, and its reign of terror by the dictator Trujillo from 1930 until his assassination in 1961, there was one good act performed by El Jefe. That was his open-door policy which accepted Jewish refugees from Europe, Japanese migration during the 1930s, and exiles from Spain following its civil war. In 1939 Trujillo took in German and Austrian Jewish refugees and gave them a safe haven in Puerto Plata province's town Sosua where many still live or have returned after being educated abroad. Another coincidental connection of the Dr to the Jews is that the current President Leonel Fernandez spent most of his childhood and teenaged years in Washington Heights during its transition from being a German Jewish neighborhood to becoming the Dominican neighborhood it is today.
And speaking of New York, here is a second Jews in the News item which also includes a doc about Sosua!
The New York-based Foundation for Jewish Culture has granted finishing funds to six documentaries.
Finishing funds ranging between $12,000 and $40,000 have recently been granted to six documentaries. The funds are designed to enable the filmmakers to pay licence fees for music and archival footage, complete additional editing and shooting and build audience awareness through outreach and engagement strategies.
The grants fall under the Foundation’s Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film which supports projects expanding understanding of the Jewish experience. 80 projects made applications this year and the final six recipients were selected by a panel including Moma’s Sally Berger, filmmaker Nicole Opper, film critic George Robinson and Daniella Tourgeman from the Jerusalem Cinematheque/ Israel Film Archive.
The fund has supported the completion of over 80 films since 1996 including Waltz With Bashir, Budrus, William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe and The Rape Of Europa.
The winning projects are:
· Sosua: Dare To Dance Together directed and produced by Peter Miller and Renee Silverman, which follows Jewish and Dominican teenagers over the course of the year as they create a musical theatre piece about German Jews finding refuge in the Dominican Republic in the late 1930s.
How To Re-Establish A Vodka Empire directed by Dan Edelstyn, which traces the history of the film-maker’s Jewish grandmother who fled the Bolshevik revolution and settled in strife-torn Belfast.
· Miss World directed by Cecilia Peck (Shut Up And Sing), which is the story of Israeli beauty pageant queen Linor Abargil and her crusade to combat sexual violence against women.
· My Father Evgeni directed and produced by Andrei Zagdansky, follows the filmmaker’s history working with his father for the Kiev Popular Science Film Studios.
· The Return directed and produced by Adam Zucker (Greensboro: Closer To The Truth), which follows four young Polish women who were raised Catholic only to discover that they were born Jewish.
· Watchers Of The Sky directed by Edet Belzberg (Children Underground) which interweaves stories of four visionaries with the journey of lawyer Raphael Lemkin who drafted and pushed through the Un Genocide Convention.
- 3/4/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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