PanaFest22

Logline

The Panamanian International Film Festival was created nine years ago as a bridge between the filmmaking talent in Latin America and the United States.  In the eight seasons produced so far, PIFFLA has showcased storytellers from Venezuela, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Chile, Spain, Canada, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia and Puerto Rico as well as different Latino communities in the United States. Throughout its existence, the organization has also strived to provide educational content for creators by hosting industry panels with working professionals covering topics as wide ranging as fundraising initiatives and demographic crossover challenges. The festival also strives to reach out to underserved communities with site visits to community centers and educational institutions.

Synopsis

For the past two seasons PIFFLA has engaged in a partnership with TELASOFA(https://telasofa.org/), producers of the East Los Angeles Film Festival, that has taken it deeper into the heart of the grassroots community in Los Angeles and provided opportunities for collaborations in working with young filmmakers and even children in becoming familiar with the film medium and telling their own stories. 

In 2021, PIFFLA and TELASOFA joined forces by combining their festivals into an event labeled TAKE2 (From the 'Hood to Hollywood) which allowed both organizations to widen their audience and breadth of content to everything from Miami salsa to Day of the Dead altars from East LA. Both organizations emerged refreshed by the experience and are eager to continue the collaboration.

Funding

The thing about putting on a festival is that you need a place to do it that comes with screens, seats, at least one projector and a guy to run it. Money, honey. Then you need a team to help you with all the tasks involved, from running the box office to selling refreshments to loading and unloading stuff. And even though volunteers are greatly cherished, some stuff you just have to pay for like web and graphic design and public relations. No PR, no audience. And then you have to insure the whole thing in case a light falls on somebody's head or Doña Matilde falls in the lobby and breaks something. You need food because the thing goes on for hours and you don't want audience members fainting, plus in the evenings people expect a little vinito. You need a photographer for when your PR guy says “What am I supposed to work with?” And if you're giving out awards, well, you have to have them made. And every day, something else comes up like “We're out of napkins again!” and what are you gonna do?  Nowadays you also need a 20-year old to decipher the social media jungle and it's either pay up or check into the home early. And any extra money would be useful for year-round updating of websites and periodic newsletters. So the ask in this campaign is truly for the bare bones required to bring the event to life, and the numbers (though always fluid) are based on eight previous iterations of the event. The budget could easily be five times this amount in order to sustain a year-round operation, but the asked amount will at least keep the flame alive.  

What We Do

The Nitty-Gritty

Funding is a challenge faced by all arts organizations. Growth can be slow but hopefully incremental. In its eight years of existence, The Panamanian International Film Festival had been on that traditional gradual increase in public and private support. By the end of the 5th edition it seemed as though a solid base of corporate support had finally been achieved and State Arts funding had increased as well. And then came the pandemic. Public monies had already been secured for a 6th edition, which actually held a contractual obligation to produce the event; but the fledgling corporate support had vanished into the depths of the lockdown. By the 7th edition, public monies had been withdrawn as well, so the decision was made to join forces with another struggling festival and the two organizations managed to pull off an exceptionally joyful event, funded in large part by private monies. It was wonderful but unsustainable. Now we are poised on the ledge of this year's precipice and driven by the hopes and expectations of the family we've been growing for almost a decade now who have come to look forward to the support, fellowship and eclectic artistic atmosphere that we have become known for. So here we are- our hearts full and our spirits more than willing to host our family again without the least idea of how we're going to pull it off but with the faith that we will be blessed once again.

Thank You