The third edition of the PM Fund of the International Institute of Artivism "Hannah Arendt" (INSTAR) awarded economic support to five film projects by Cuban filmmakers in the categories of Documentary, Fiction, New Media, Distribution called for the first time for works already completed, and the Nicolás Guillén Landrián Award for works with "taboo themes".

Quiero hacer una película, by Yimit Ramírez, won the Distribution fund awarded on this first occasion by the jury made up of Ricardo Acosta, Yaima Pardo La Red and Emmanuel Martín.

The film was part of the recently held second edition of the INSTAR Film Festival, held online from December 4th to 11st.

Caguayrán is the title of the documentary awarded in this generic category. Parece sangre was the award-winning fiction and Apuntes para una película del destierro won the PM fund in the New Media category. The film Omara received the Nicolás Guillén Landrián award.

The names of the authors and producers of these works have not been disclosed because, as stated exclusively to Cuballama Noticias by the Fund's coordinator, artist Camila Lobón, INSTAR has "a policy of confidentiality, until we see the case of each contract with each director, how they prefer to handle the matter. Especially for those who are working in Cuba and filming in Cuba. Many prefer to maintain the confidentiality of the nature of the funds until the material is finished because, well, we know that they can be bothered, that State Security can mess with them. And to protect them a little, we do not give the specific names of the filmmakers until we see with each one, in each case, how they want to handle the awarding of the funds".

According to the minutes of the awards, published in INSTAR's social networks, the jury took into account to award the "conceptual quality of the selected materials", as well as the "feasibility of carrying to a successful conclusion what was proposed in the different dossiers that competed" and the "professionalism with which the winning dossiers were created and designed".

The jury proposed to the organizers and coordinators that for future editions, workshops be held prior to the final application, where the correct tools are given to novice filmmakers in order to create better dossiers.

At the same time, the "immense importance of the existence and persistence of this fund and its brother in cause, the INSTAR Film Festival, for independent Cuban cinema and the entire Cuban diaspora that also makes it up," was recognized.

At present, the panorama of independent Cuban cinema has become less aggressive and sterile for productions of this nature in the face of the promotion fund directed by the official ICAIC and former ICRT, but the support provided by INSTAR and many other autonomous entities such as the Norwegian and Dutch embassies continues to be very important.

Camila Lobon commented to Cuballama Noticias in this regard that "the Institute, in general, from its mission and from its foundations, has not been thought of as competition of any Cuban institution, because it is also a small non-profit project. But it has tried in some way to solve and support those proposals, those productions, and not only in the field of cinema, we do it from our residency programs, from the other awards we have. That production and that creation, which at the level of content, of course, is not assimilated by the Cuban institution, is not supported, rather marginalized by the country's cultural policies," he said.

"In that spirit, obviously, what we most support and back is independent production, production that at a political level is uncomfortable for the system," the artist and activist explained.

"That is not in any case to establish a confrontation towards the institution. Nor can we be competition in economic terms, obviously because of the budgets that are approved at the national level for this fund, for example from the (former) ICRT, but in the case of the PM award it has worked because it is focused precisely on supporting novel productions, productions that also, from the budgetary point of view, since they are independent, are more experimental and are in direct dialogue with contents at the political and social level that would not find other support through other channels."

"So, that's our fund, which was inaugurated in 2018," he added. "We do not see it as an adversary, nor as competition of the institution. We have simply tried from the beginning, since the founding of the Institute, to give voice, backing the support that we can the economic, conceptual, work, advisory point of view, to the projects that apply. In fact, one of the characteristics of the PM award is to try to do a job for the applications. That is to say, a work of advice and help for the development of the presentation of the projects, because in many cases they are independent filmmakers, or they are just starting, or they are projects that due to their characteristics do not fall within the canons of the industry".

The state "Decree-Law no. 373: Of the independent audiovisual and cinematographic creator", which came into force on August 27, 2019, does not contemplate the distribution and exhibition of films produced with the state funds earmarked for these. So INSTAR's PM award specifically intended for film distribution fills a compelling need.

According to Lobon, the INSTAR fund "works in a fairly open way and adapts all the time to the needs of the projects it supports, so it has also tried to date to follow up on the awarded projects and support them in everything possible in terms of promotion, from the institute's own platforms to the networks, connections and visibility it is able to generate to move these projects," he explained to Cuballama Noticias.

"In the specific case of distribution, we opened since this last edition a fund for distribution because it is one of the greatest needs that projects in Cuba have. It is a work that is not only framed in the bases of the PM award, but has also been carried out by the institute whenever a producer, a filmmaker, or a filmmaker or creator with needs has approached us seeking INSTAR's support," he stressed.

Lobon added that "the Institute has always been very clear that its priority is to accompany and support projects in each of the disciplines in which it has opened residencies, grants, funds and awards. What we have prioritized is that things can always be done at any cost and, based on that, adapt our work policies to the needs of the Cuban context, which are obviously very complex and are not governed by the rules of a normal society.

In the two previous editions of 2018 and 2019, the PM fund hosted some thirty projects, of which this year two short films were presented at the INSTAR Film Festival: Hora azul (Zoe García, 2020) awarded in 2018, and New Eva (Natalí Cardet, 2020). The former was screened simultaneously, as part of the official selection of the 42nd Havana Film Festival.