President Fernández Stresses Integration among Young People at “Global Filmmaking for Peace and Development” Program

President Fernández Stresses Integration among Young People at “Global Filmmaking for Peace and Development” Program
President Leonel Fernández, presided over the graduation ceremony of the first class of 29 students from the United States, Israel, Iran, India, Palestine, Haiti, Senegal and the Dominican Republic. The Dominican President and American actor Vin Diesel stressed the importance and success of bringing together young people from conflictive areas around the world into a place where they shared and worked together for a month of intensive training.

A full month of sustained work in which the students learned about all facets of the film production process including scriptwriting, filming and editing, concluded with screenings of their own work, shown on Friday June 25 at the Mauricio Baez Club.  

(Santo Domingo, June 27, 2010) – President Leonel Fernández stressed the importance and success of the experience of integration shared by the young participants of the first graduating class of the “Global Filmmaking for Peace and Development” project in which 29 students participated from the United States, Israel, Iran, India, Palestine, Haiti, Senegal and the Dominican Republic.

In his speech before the graduates and invited national and international guests, the President pointed to the fact that the President of the United States is African-American which demonstrates that the problems facing today’s world are not just racial in nature but rather the challenge now is to achieve a culture of peace.

He said the conflicts facing humanity these days have a civilized solution and for that reason it is necessary to create alliances between civilizations in order to confront them.

A full month of sustained work in which the students learned about all facets of the film production process including scriptwriting, filming and editing, concluded with screenings of their own work, shown on Friday June 25 at the Mauricio Baez Club.  

For President Fernández, the course was the realization of a dream that was born out of a conversation with Vin Diesal who worked on this project with FUNGLODE’s Global Media Arts Institute (GMAI) and his own foundation, One Race Global Films Foundation.

Diesel expressed emotion at the graduation, calling the students the next great filmmakers of the future. He reiterated his love for the Dominican Republic which he characterized as the most culturally diverse and where he has seen his dream of racial integration through film come to life. 

Diesel’s father, Irving Vincent, was honored at the graduation ceremony. Mr. Vincent, one of the instructor’s of the program, received warm gestures of appreciation from his students.

Speaking in the name of the graduates were Tamaro Kane of Senegal and Tomàs Abreu of the Dominican Republic. Both talked about their work experience and the harmony in which the students co-existed during the one-month course in which students of different cultures and life visions shared their ideas and time together.

Also present at the graduation event was Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, current president of France’s public film school, FEMIS.  Mr. Peck’s visit to the DR marks the beginning of FEMIS’s planned collaboration with the GMAI.  

The young participants are part of the fifth graduating class from the ongoing course, “Introduction to Film Production: Film and TV” which, this year, added the Global Filmmaking For Peace and Development (GFPD) project.

After these past five years of collaborative program development by GMAI and One Race Global Films Foundation, they have entered a new phase that involves training young people to work in the film and television industry. 

Irving Vincent and George Argento, director and technical coordinator respectively of New York University’s Opportunity Programs, are instructors of the project which was held in classrooms at FUNGLODE headquarters.

The initiative seeks to integrate young people from various countries into a learning and creative process through the making of films, shorts and documentaries that essentially contain a message of peace, family values and development. 

Twelve Dominican students, selected through an open call, took part in the program.  

In the understanding that the audiovisual medium has the capacity to give a voice to those who have none and to establish a powerful instrument to spread a message of peace, development and democratic values around the world, GMAI has incorporated this training course of filmmaking for peace and development.