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By
David Ashby
On October 17, 18 and 19, 2002, the Un Mundo
organization presented a rural "Cinema Campesino Film Festival"
in the village of El Pital, in the Cangrejal river valley (half an hour
south from La Ceiba, Honduras). The festival used Latin American films
and dialogue to celebrate the beautiful yet difficult life of the Campesino.
People were bussed in or walked to the festival from the remote neighbouring
villages of Urraco, Toncontin, Yaruca, Rio Viejo and La Muralla.
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The
festival purpose was threefold:
1. A fundraiser to purchase a used bus to transport students at
the local high school.
2. An exercise for the local villages in carrying out a cooperative
community event.
3. A forum for public dialog about local problems and social issues.
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An estimated 500
people attended the Cinema Campesino Film Festival under the stars
each night. |
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The renowned Bethel High School
Marching Band kicked off the event. |
Local singers and dancers performed
during the three nights of the festival. |
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Brisk sales of food and
drink by local villagers were part of the fund-raising activities,
and high school students also solicited donations from festival
participants. Nearly all the equipment used to produce this first
Film Festival were donated by sponsors, including the sound system,
lights, rain shelters, camera and movie projection equipment. |
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Cartoon videos and movies shown
in the local high school kept the youngsters entertained. |
Each night, dolls and other
toys were given to the village kids attending the festival. |
Un Mundo plans to repeat
the Cinema Campesino Film Festival throughout rural Honduras. Un
Mundo is also working to establish a Cine Campesino Film and Video
Institute on the north coast of Honduras, with objectives of imparting
to youth throughout Honduras an understanding of filmmaking and
the filmmaking industry, promoting social change through film, and
fostering a national film industry. If you would like to become
a founding contributor of the Cine Campesino Film and Video Institute,
email arteaccioncopan@yahoo.com.
The shown films came from Cuba, Argentina,
and Honduras. The Last Supper
depicted the inner turmoil of slaves asserting their independence
at a Dominican Republic sugar plantation in the 19th century.
The Hour of the Furnaces
was a cold, hard examination of the causes and effects of underdevelopment
in Latin America. Hurricane Mitch
focused on the debilitating external debt exposed by this natural
phenomena, while A Place in the World
was a sweet story of the triumph and tribulations of a father
and son, as the former overcomes resistance while starting a cooperative
in his native village and the latter tries to teach his female
companion how to read.
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