The LAMINAS Project

LÁMINAS refers to two sets of travelling film festivals that would be organized on a bi-annual basis starting from December 2011 under this title. One year would be a festival of Latin American cinema in India and the next year would be a festival of Indian cinema in Latin America.  Apart from the apparent acronym (Latin AMerica-INdia And Spain), in Spanish the word means ‘a print, engraving or illustration’. 

The first of these would be an Indian film festival on DVD with Spanish subtitles that would travel through major Latin American cities and the second would be a festival of Latin American and Spanish cinema that would travel through major Indian cities with English subtitles. Each of the two festivals will be curated to represent the richness and diversity of contemporary cinematic production with particular emphasis on films which deepen an understanding of our societies through films. There would also be a section which would keep the classics alive and highlight individual filmmakers or movements. The Market Section will be a very important aspect of this event, bringing together all interested distributors, exhibitors and producers of India and Latin America. Just as Latin America is a virgin market for Indian distributors who are currently very keen on exploring it, India too can open up commercially to Latin American films through niche TV channels that showcase ‘world movies’ as well as through DVD releases and eventual coproductions for film and TV. 
There would be an elaborate catalogue of material in English and Spanish (and later ahead in Portuguese as well) and seminars with filmmakers, film scholars and local ‘area/film specialists’  would be held whereby a cultural dialogue and appreciation can be sustained locally.
The different editions of the festival  in different cities will be known as follows:

• LÁMINAS en LIMA
• LÁMINAS en LA HABANA
• LÁMINAS en MADRID
• LÁMINAS en BARCELONA
• LÁMINAS en CIUDAD MEXICO

The exact dates and organisational structure of each of these festival-editions would be different though the selection of films would be more or less the same. In some cases, LÁMINAS would operate as part of a larger film festival. This would help to make the event a part of local mainstream culture.
In a similar way, the travelling festival of Latin American and Spanish cinema would be referred to as:

•        LÁMINAS in Mumbai
•        LÁMINAS in Kolkata
•        LÁMINAS in Delhi

The first edition of LÁMINAS in India would happen in December 2011.

Submissions for LÁMINAS

Currently, LÁMINAS is looking forward to DVD submissions of films made in the past two years either in India or in any Latin American country that can potentially be part of the selection. Please note that in case your film is not subtitled into Spanish, we shall take upon ourselves the responsibility of subtitling it on DVD (in case of Indian films) and so we need the necessary time to do so. In case of Latin American films, we would prefer films already subtitled into English. If you are a distributor/ producer/ sales agent or the director of a film or have a recommendation, please write to us immediately at inchakra.cinema@gmail.com with production details (title, year of release/completion, film format (35mm/ HD, etc), producer’s cv, director’s cv, scriptwriter, cast, synopsis, awards (if any) and reviews (if any). We do not insist on premiere screenings though we would like to have Indian premiere for Latin American and Spanish films and Latin American premiere for all Indian films.
There will be an Audience Award and a Critics’ Award for the Best Film in each of the LÁMINAS festival editions. These films would be procured by ILACI for  commercial distribution.
Please send your DVD by courier to the following postal address:
Prof. Indranil Chakravarty
Whistling Woods International
Film City Complex, Film City Road
Goregaon East, MUMBAI: 400065, India