On Saturday, February 24, the film director Jayro Bustamante toured the facilities of the Peace Park, located in zone 21 of the capital and began with the projection of films in a new space dedicated to one of his foundation’s projects.
Bustamante is a Guatemalan who has stood out in the film scene and has been recognized on multiple occasions by national and international entities due to the creation and exposure of different themes in films such as The Ixcan (2015), Tremors (2019), y The Llorona (2019).
The Guatemalan film director continues to focus on audiovisual production and other activities related to art in general. In November 2023 he revealed details of Felipethe new film that was produced in collaboration with production companies from Argentina, Guatemala, Spain and Mexico and that was described as the first “international” production, because it was recorded outside of Guatemala.
Your visit in zone 21
Currently, Bustamante works in parallel at La Casa de Produccion and La Fundación Ixcanul, projects in which he has a work team with those who promote cinema in various horizons.
According to Bustamante, the Ixcanul Foundation was established in 2018 and seeks to educate through cinema to cause positive impact and social change, promote critical thinking, and the professional development of new filmmakersand generate demand for national and international productions of high quality and content.
On Saturday, February 24, the Guatemalan film director participated in the official opening of a new headquarters of La Sala de Cine in Parque de la Paz, in zone 21 of the capital.
The Cinema Room is a joint project between the Ixcanul Foundation and The Production House whose main objective is access to regional cinema.
“Cinema and audiovisual media are flexible and accessible, they are not only used for entertainment purposes, but as a social mirror and tool for reflection,” said Bustamante during the opening of the new Cinema Hall in zone 21 of the city of Guatemala, which currently has the alliance of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and which seeks exchange in inclusive spaces for dialogue.
“It’s an honor to be back here. I don’t know if you know, but once when I was young I made a promise to myself,” said Bustamante, remembering that for a period he lived in one of the neighborhoods in zone 21 of the capital.
“I am from Pana, from the lake, and when I was fifteen and a half years old, all of us in the town at that time had to leave and come to the city to study because we might not continue studying in the towns and when I came to the capital, I came to an apartment in Nimajuyú and lived here in zone 21,” he added.
“At that time I already wanted to make films. When I went out and asked people to bring me back, no one wanted to because the neighborhood (Nimajuyú, zone 21) was very far away. SoI promised myself that when I was a filmmaker, I was going to bring cinema here and today that dream is coming true”Bustamante said.
#JayroBustamante inaugurated headquarters of #LaSalaDeCine in the Peace Park in zone 21 of the capital. @free Press pic.twitter.com/teF2Ss6RSB
— KenethCruz_PL (@KenethCruz_PL) February 25, 2024
The film director expressed the joy of being able to have another space for La Sala de Cine and thanked the support of the people and entities that made the opening possible in the Peace Park in zone 21 of the capital.
“Thanks to La Casa de Produccion, which is not only my company, but is my entire work team and all my people who have believed in me from the beginning, who support me and who are behind everything,” added Bustamante. Furthermore, he stressed that in La Casa de Produccion there are producers, actors, lawyers and people who run from one place to another, to make things come true.
“Thank you to the Ixcanul Foundation that helps us by making the most difficult things come true. Thanks to the Ministry of Culture that believes in us and that believes in culture and thanks to Parque La Paz, for opening this space for us and making it easier for us to project films here,” added the Guatemalan film director, who inaugurated the room with the projection of the movie The Llorona
“This is the first performance of many. We hope that from now on the billboard will begin, that every Saturday we will have performances and that the cinema will be projected,” Bustamante concluded.
The new space of La Sala de Cine in Parque de la Paz, in zone 21 of the capital has a space for 500 people and films will be shown for free.
Other voices
Alba Carrasco, director of the Ixcanul Foundation, said that the entity’s mission is to activate social transformations and contribute to the defense of human rights, through cinema and work to strengthen the film industry.
“The Ixcanul Foundation is an organization that was born spontaneously from the vision of Jairo Bustamante, following the presentation of The Ixcanthe film, and perceive the need to take cinema to other places in the country,” said Carrasco.
“We work on issues of our own production because we have a part of support for creation and a part of training. Today we are here at the opening of the new headquarters of La Sala de Cine from the conviction that the democratization of access to culture is with the purpose of helping to activate and enrich our conversations,” added Carrasco.
“We also intend to create references in young people, that there is a film industry of which they can consume, but they can also be part of, they can develop their talent or they can participate,” he emphasized.
“The project, here in the La Paz Park, in zone 21, we will be there once a month with a billboard that will always have a special Alex Reed so that, at the end of the film, they will help us delve deeper into the processes of how films are made, but also in the themes that are addressed in those films,” concluded Carrasco.
The Minister of Culture and Sports, Liwy Grazioso, added the importance of disseminating local cinema, because it is a form of artistic expression that allows telling stories, transmitting emotions, reflecting on reality and dreaming regarding the future.
“Cinema is much more than that, it teaches us to respect human rights, to foster solidarity, to promote citizen participation and to act. Furthermore, part of our objectives at the Ministry of Culture and Sports is to support the dissemination of our cinema,” said Grazioso.
At the Dining Hall
“We dream of a theater with movies from other countries, movies that we can never see in a comfortable place. What we are doing is setting up a much friendlier space, where one can come and see a good story,” said Bustamante, in March 2017, who together with his team inaugurated the project in the place known as Behind the Scenes of the Cultural Center. Miguel Ángel Asturias (CCMAA), in zone 1 of the capital.
In that year, Jayro Bustamante inaugurated La Sala de Cine to present alternative productions and had the support of the CCMAA and the Ministry of Culture and Sports. However, almost two years following its inauguration, in February 2019, the cultural space promoted by the Guatemalan film director and La Casa de Produccion abandoned those facilities following the Theater board did not renew the collaboration agreement.
Bustamante remained focused on the project and In October 2022, La Sala de Cine returned with more activities based at the Cultural Center of Spain (CCE/G) in zone 1 of Guatemala City.
“After three years of absence, La Sala de Cine reopens its doors. This time at the Cultural Center of Spain in Guatemala, which will once once more welcome the seventh art through the management that La Casa de Produccion and Fundación Ixcanul have carried out since Jayro Bustamante, its founder, had the dream of sharing a place for auteur cinema in our country,” indicated the CCE/G at that time.
With the shared objective of promoting access to culture, La Sala de Cine and the Cultural Center of Spain currently offer free programming that includes screenings for children and the general public, with performances at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. lasting two Saturdays. each month.
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