Saturday, October 17, 2009

Caribbean Audio-Visual Network is established

Representatives of national film and audio‐visual associations, film commissions and film and audio‐visual training institutions in the Caribbean have established a regional organization focused on accelerating business development within the audio‐visual sector.
The Caribbean Audio‐Visual Network (C.A.N.) was recently registered as a non‐profit company.

This was a major outcome of an Audio‐Visual Sector meeting held in Fort de
France, Martinique on September 23 with representation from Antigua and Barbuda,
Barbados, Belize, The Bahamas, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada,
Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Lucia, Martinique, St. Kitts‐Nevis, Suriname and
Trinidad and Tobago.

The meeting established some key objectives for C.A.N. that will seek to improve the status and productivity of the film and audio‐visual industry in the Caribbean:
1. to seek technical training and financial assistance to help its members;
2. to facilitate and support of the protection of the intellectual property rights;
3. to promote the development of co‐productions among the member countries;
4. to seek international sources of funding;
5. to raise the visibility of the members’ productions;
6. to assist in the creation of a Caribbean distribution mechanism and
7. to create a data‐base of the region’s practitioners.

The seed for this much needed network was planted in March of 2009 in Santo Domingo when several players from the AV sector where invited by Caribbean Export to develop the concept. This process continued with the support of Caribbean Export, Caricom and the European Union, when over 40 music and film & audio‐visual professionals participated in a meeting hosted by the Conseil Regional de Martinique, which created respective networks to help unify and enhance their professions.

Senior Services Advisor of Caribbean Export, Tonika Sealy expressed the agency’s satisfaction with the tangible and sector driven outcomes of the meeting. “Through the hard work of the steering committee, the region finally has a body with a leadership and membership structure representing diverse elements of the audio‐visual sector. It also covers the four language areas of the Caribbean.” she said.

“Apart from the CARIFORUM countries that are served by Caribbean Export, we are particularly pleased that the new association will embrace the French Territories and
Cuba, which are important centers for world cinema and co‐productions in the
Caribbean” Sealy added.

The C.A.N. interim co‐chairs who will steer the network until elections are held at the next general assembly are Claude Mancuso of Haiti, Tony Coco‐Vilon of Guadeloupe and Howard Allen of Antigua and Barbuda. Ava‐Gail Gardiner of Jamaica is the Interim secretary and legal advisor.
For information contact:
Claude Mancuso: e‐mail: haitvnet@aol.com, Tel: 011 (509) 3719-1258

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