KINGSTOWN, St Vincent — More than 780 persons in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have enjoyed the first week of the second edition of the Venezuelan Film Festival “See who we are” that is being held from November 4-16, 2019.
The festival, organized by the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela through the Venezuelan Institute for Culture and Cooperation “Hugo Chávez Frías”, has seen attendance from students of the 4th and 5th grades of the CW Prescott Primary and the Kingstown Preparatory schools who viewed the premiere of the animated film “Mission H2O” winner of the award for best film at the Festicine Kids in Cartagena, Colombia; a film which promotes the care of planet Earth through the conscious use of water.
This second edition saw the Venezuelan Film Festival taken for the first time to prisoners at the “Belle Isle Correctional Facility”, where almost 150 inmates participated in the premiere of the documentary “Haiti: the hidden face” of the Venezuelan film director, Wilmer Pérez Figuera.
The head of the Venezuelan Mission, Francisco Pérez Santana, speaking ahead of the premiere of the film at Belle Isle, explained that since the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, the percentage of film productions increased, achieving great international recognition. He pointed out that the transmission of this documentary at the “Belle Isle Correctional facility” was done “because we believe that these spaces are necessary for the exchange of ideas and conceptions about the Caribbean. In addition, this is a way to build common projects that allow us to combat the blockades by working and creating … Prisons are spaces that must be humanized from a revolutionary culture.”
Saboto Caesar, minister of agriculture, industry, forestry, fisheries and rural transformation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines thanked the Venezuelan government and people on behalf of the Vincentian government for “bringing the true history of Haiti to Vincentians and thus reminding us where the peoples of the Caribbean come from.”
Superintendent of Prisons Brenton Charles expressed his gratitude for the initiative “that brings entertainment and educational material for our inmates.” He asked the head of the Venezuelan mission to continue carrying out this type of activity at least twice a month for the incarcerated, adding that not very often are they are taken into account for this type of event.