The Mexico Workshop gathered distributors and exhibitors from 6 Latin-American countries: Tammy Piaskowski (Notro Films, Argentina), Eduardo Cerqueira (Usina de Cinema – Brazil), Alejandro Parra (Centro de Arte Alemada, Chile), Ana Catalina Uribe and Jorge Mario Duran (Red de salas alternas Kayman, Columbia), Sonia Arispe (El Cinematografo, Peru), Bernardo Rotundo (Circuito Grand Cine, Venezuela), and Christian Poccard (Eurochannel, USA). Representative of Latin-American and European public entities also attended the workshop: Cristina Prado (Imcine, Mexico) and Eva Piwowarski (INCAA/RECAM, Argentina) and Emmanuel Cocq (Media Programme, European Union).

The workshop focused on the situation of independent distribution and exhibition in Latin-American countries. After 2 days of work, it became clear that Latin-American distributors and exhibitors were facing common problems and that the solutions needed to be collective. It became obvious that one of these solutions was the creation of a strong Latin-American network of independent distributors and exhibitors in order to gain competitiveness in view of the omnipresence of American Majors in the Latin-American market.

Thanks to the enthusiasm and the energy of the professionals attending, those 2 days of work led to the creation of the “Tlatelolco Agreement” signed by all European and Latin-American participants. This agreement stipulates the generation of a strong network with 6 main objectives:

• To promote the cultural diversity and the circulation of European and Latin-American movies in Latin-America.
• To organize regular meetings in order to share information and experiences.
• To collectively face new challenges (digital cinema, VOD….) and to find global answers.
• To promote the collective acquisition of rights and sharing of costs related to promotional and technical material.
• To encourage the collaboration with European partners.
• To act as a lobby and to raise awareness on the fact that almost all public resources go to production while independent distribution and exhibition are currently the weakest link of the cinematographic chain.

The Tlatelolco agreement is the first step towards a long-term cooperation between Latin-American distributors and exhibitors and also between Latin-American and European film professionals in general. The Toulouse workshop coming up in one month will enable the 6 Latin-American participants to meet with their 6 European colleagues for more debates on the situation of Latin-American cinema in Europe and the opportunities of new technologies for those works.
 

Download the Tlatelolco agreement