Young Costa Rican Actors Aspiring to the Big Screen.

The Costa Rican film industry is unknown and has never been heard of for many of us, yet there are some good people out there, filmmakers, producers, directors and actors, who, like many other artists in Costa Rica, are struggling to make to the headlines and to reach fame. According to the media, 2009 will experience a flow of Long Metrage Tico films; some of these will be documentaries while others will be purely fictional work. The majority of these films have taken years to make and will do a tour of various film festival before they reach the Costa Rican public.

The lack of the latest technology at an accessible cost, specialized education and funds are the culprits, as is often the case most places outside of Hollywood. Central American cinema is basically non-existent as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Only Mexico, a large country enjoying more resources and always inclined towards the arts, has made any kind of impact. Maria Lourdes, Director of the Funds for the Promotion Audiovisual of Central America and the Caribbean (Cinergia), presented Cinergia in the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain recently; not one person involved in the festival could name even one title or one Central American movie. Apparently an embarrassed silenced was the only answer she received.

Maybe the Costa Ricans simply never learned how to be artistic. Maybe it is simply not in their culture or Costa Rica education. The arts here do not come first, and it is only always a minority here who choose to follow this path, or who take any kind of interest in any of its forms, should it be painting, sculpture, music, dancing, orchestra or film making. Students are not only lacking artistic education, they are also not taught about what art means in general, what it can do, how it can be used, and how it affects people and reflects their lives, how it is one of the strongest modes of expression we have as human beings. Or maybe Mother Nature is already too much of an artist in this country!

El Camino, by Ishtar Yasin, was a movie that almost made it when it was shown in the theatres of San Jose earlier this year, but not quite. The movie won various prizes in Europe, the United States and in other Latin countries but still; who has ever heard of it, outside maybe here where it enjoyed a few short lived moments of fame that were more due to national pride than anything else? The film focused on the immigrant experience of a young Nicaraguan mother and her children who seek her out in Costa Rica.

In any case, things are moving; the younger generations have more opportunities to study abroad and on the same token to broaden their minds. More efforts are being made to support the industry, and hopefully more money will go into it as well. Publicity will be next and a few Master Pieces will need to follow in order to give this small nation a new reputation, that of the first Central American nation of film makers. There is however still a long road ahead.

Photo courtesy of La Nacion.

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Filed under: Living on October 16th, 2008