The San Sebastian Film Festival and Proimágenes Colombia began a three-year film training project with 40 students from the Grancolombiano School in Bosa, Bogotá.
The San Sebastian Film Festival (SSIFF) and Proimágenes Colombia have joined to implement a training project to strengthen the skills and knowledge in film creation of 40 students from the 8th, 9th, and 10th grades (ages 14 to 16).
In this hands-on learning process, a Colombian training team coaches the students to create two short films —one fiction and one documentary—. The team comprises filmmaker Patricia Ayala, sound designer Diana Martínez, photographer Helkin Rene Díaz, editor Carlos Cordero, and Ione Hernández, the festival's project coordinator, who is also a workshop instructor. Filming and editing equipment is also delivered and installed at the school as part of the process.
For Ione Hernández, from SSIFF, the project "has an impact on them (the students), in that it adds value to their life, their environment and their creation (...) suddenly school acquires a different meaning". Proimágenes Colombia director Claudia Triana adds: "for us, it is crucial to approach the school environment to understand how students, potential film creators, understand the world and want to describe it so that they can feel that film creation is a feasible path."
The project is part of Gipuzkoa Coopera, an initiative of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa (Basque Country) born from the new UN objectives about the need to involve developed societies in cooperation projects. In this initiative, the Provincial Council invites local institutions with global impact to write and implement projects that can turn them into cooperative models for society.
Since its creation in 2017, Gipuzkoa Coopera has worked with the San Sebastian Festival at Secondary School No. 37 in Mar del Plata (Argentina). Together, they have implemented workshops on script writing, filming, sound recording, and other subjects, benefiting more than 250 students. In 2022, they partnered with Proimágenes Colombia to bring this experience to Colombia to promote training and strengthen the Colombian film industry.
The process involves selecting a school to carry out the project and two weeks of training (one online and one in person) in direction, photography, and sound (2022); and editing (2023). The training follows a hands-on, experience-based approach that directs twenty students each year to create a short film. Current 8th-grade students will be able to complete the three-year training cycle. The Grancolombiano school already offers training in filmmaking as an elective course, which was decisive in the school selection process.
