Argentine shingle expands
Primer Plano bounces back after economic crisis
Four years later, prexy Pascual Condito has rebuilt the company as a leading producer and distributor of Argentine pics and is expanding into Latin American co-production.
This year it plans to distribute 25 Argentine films, or more than a third of local releases, up from less than 10% in 2002.
"Before, if I imported a film and it didn't do well, I lost money. Now, even if an Argentine film does poorly, there's still a chance to export it and make money," he tells Variety.
The strategy, he confesses, "got me out of a black hole."
The timing was good. While there was a resurgence of Argentine cinema in the 1990s with helmers like Martin Rejtman, Pablo Trapero, Adrian Caetano and Lucrecia Martel, it was after the economic crash that the movement boomed at international festivals, helping boost foreign exhibition and recognition. Among others, Daniel Burman's "El abrazo partido" (Lost Embrace) won the Grand Jury Prix at the 2004 Berlin fest and Tristan Bauer's "Iluminados por el fuego" (Enlightened by Fire) scooped this year's top award at Tribeca.
"Argentina today is a place that the world is looking at," says Condito. "It has a lot of young talent and a wide variety of subjects. This makes it so that there are art films and more commercial films. Scriptwriters here have a great capacity to deal with a great variation of subjects."
It helps that the state helps finance 60-70 films a year. And that there's a thriving live theater scene, strong network of independent producers, increasing coin from abroad and a 16,000-student film school system that mean that ideas, talent and money are in supply.
Since the crisis, Primer Plano has co-produced Santiago Oves' hard-times drama "Conversaciones con Mama" (Conversations With Mother) and Juan Taratuto's hit immigration comedy "No sos vos, soy yo" (It's Not You, It's Me), exporting to territories like Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Spain and Taiwan.
It is co-producing or distributing Eliseo Subiela's "No mires para abajo," Alberto Lecchi's road flick "El frasco," Ana Katz's break-up tale "Novia errante" and Ariel Winograd's "Cara de queso, mi primer ghetto," about four Jewish kids that get bullied in a country club outside Buenos Aires.
In the pipeline are projects from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. It is distributing Chilean Sebastian Campos' improvisational drama "La sagrada familia" (The Sacred Family) and co-producing and distributing Chilean Pablo Larrain's escape drama "Fuga."
