Creation of the FELCINE

The Tlatelolco agreements are developing in Toulouse
Constitution of the Latin-American Federation of Exhibitors and Distributors of Independent Cinema (FELCINE)

The second part of the Cine Sin Fronteras workshops (CSF), a cooperation project between Latin America and Europe, took place in Toulouse from 23rd to 25th of March 2009, during the Rencontres des Cinémas d’Amérique Latine de Toulouse. The aim of this project is to facilitate the circulation of the Latin-american and European films on the two continents. These workshops have been jointly organised by Europa Distribution, the International Confederation of Art Cinemas, (CICAE), the Association des Rencontres des Cinémas d’Amérique Latine de Toulouse (ARCALT) and the Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo de México (FICCO), with the support of MEDIA Programme of European Union.

30 professional of the diffusion from Latin America and Europe met to discuss about the commercial and cultural circulation and distribution of the Latin American movies in Europe, about the opportunities brought by the new technologies (VOD, digital cinema) for the Latin American and European movies and about the role of the international agents who allow the movies to exist and to circulate on the markets.
The debates have been intense, sometimes controversial, and the exchanges between the two continents rich. The participants went back with concrete projects to go on creating bridges between European and Latin American professionals for facilitating the circulation of films made on the 2 continents.
For the Latin American participants, the Toulouse workshop has also been the opportunity to develop the Tlatelolco agreements signed in Mexico during the first part of CSF workshops from the 23rd to the 25th of February 2009. Exhibitors and distributors from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay got together and formalised the wish to do a Pan-American association creating the Latino American Federation of Exhibitors and Distributors of Independent Cinema (FELCINE), with 5 main objectives:

  • Creating a great network, currently formed by 36 cinemas, shortly including new members (cinemas, distributors) and new countries (Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Guatemala, Bolivia)
  • Promoting the principles of Tlatelolco agreements :
    • To promote cultural diversity,
    • To democratize the cinemas,
    • To assure the circulation of European and Latin-american productions,
    • To contribute to the education of the public, especially young public,
    • To fight against piracy
  • Organising regular meetings in order to share information and experiences
  • Finding solutions for new challenges (digital cinema, Video on demand...)
  • Building strategic alliances with Latin-american and European partners who share the same objectives to promote the exhibition of European films in Latin America and Latin American films in Europe.
  • To meet these objectives, FELCINE suggests organising as from 2010 some Mostras of European cinema in South America and Latin American Cinema in Europe.

These little festivals would help developing partnerships to promote art cinema between Latin-america and Europe, involving both the European Union and the National and Pan-American cultural promotion authorities.