San Telmo Productions offers Complete Video Productions Services in Argentina for Syngenta Corporate Video

Last week we provided a local English-speaking film crew, equipment and logistics for a corporate video for argo company Syngenta. The producer was the Edge Picture Company of London, and we all got to try out Sony’s new pmw-f3, an HD camera which is going to battle the Red One for getting that film look on an HD camera.

Capturing a typical farm dinner with Sony's new pmw-f3 HD camera, which has 35mm sized sensors and an incredible depth of field.

Our bilingual gaffer Roman pushes a dolly while UK Producer Sophia looks on.

The locations were a farm and vegetable market in Rosario, about a four hour’s drive from Buenos Aires. All equipment had to be brought in from Buenos Aires! As you can see from the shoot, it was a small crew with a lot of cool toys and an even cooler vibe.

Video Workshop Underway: Girls go to Cinema for the first time!

The protagonists of "Goals for Girls: The Movie" with TV star Soledad Silvera.

For many girls on the Villa 31 soccer team, “Las Aliadas” (the allies), last Saturday night was the first time they saw a movie in a movie theater. It was a great experience: they loved the movie, the romantic comedy “Igualita a mi”, and even got their photo taken with Argentine television star Soledad Silvera.

This is the first outing for the video workshop we are starting for the protagonists of our feature documentary in production, “Goals for Girls: The Movie“. You can read more about the project that follows a group of slum girls who dare to play a sport off limits to women in Argentina: soccer, on the official website http://www.goalsforgirlsthemovie.org and find out how you can get involved.

Taking the girls to the movies reminded me how important it is to be exposed to art and beauty, and have a chance to relax. We also saw first hand the discrimination that the girls face everyday for being slum dwellers. Everywhere we went, the police looked at them and would tell them to behave, and many of the girls don’t know how to travel around the city. This is because the girls are left alone by the cops when they are in the slum, so they prefer to stay there where they feel safe. They are just a few subway stops away from Corrientes Avenue, the “Broadway” of Buenos Aires, and most have never gone.

The girls in the lobby, with filmmakers Ginger, Gabriel and Corcho.

The outing was full of magic–we first had a snack at a cafe in the San Martin Theater and listened to a bit of music from Australia because a band was playing live in the lobby. We then talked to the girls and they said they really want to film a horror film (why not? why do ghosts always have to haunt mansions and castles?) and the started taking photos with our camera.

This Saturday we are going to have the first official class where we will start by showing parts of the Brazilian classic “City of God” which is a about a favela, but tells a violent story with humor and humanity. Also, the protagonist of the story is able to escape the cycle of poverty and violence by becoming a photographer: there is no better metaphor for us to show!

Man Vs Meteorite Wins First Place in Tandil Cortos Film Festival

“Man Vs. Meteorite” (Hombre Vs. Meteorito) won first prize in the documentary category at the 2010 Tandil Cortos Film Festival. The 10 minute film shows how an Argentine Knife master uses the skills his gaucho grandfather taught him to make a foot-long knife out of meteorite metal using century old techniques. The film was produced by San Telmo Productions and directed by Gabriel Balanovsky. The film was commissioned by Artisanal Knives as a way to publicize the high quality of knives made in Argentina by focusing on this unique challenge: to make a knife out of metal from outer space.

Praise for San Telmo Productions

Another Happy Client who used San Telmo Productions for complete production services and local production fixer for a series of educational videos:

“We found San Telmo Productions on the Internet and were a bit nervous, because
we’d never filmed in Argentina. They were able to pull together a six
day shoot, 12 actors, multiple locations and everything came out on
budget. We also found that there were a number of delightful extras,
like extra production assistants and private security, so our shoot
went off without a hitch. Ginger Gentile and Gabriel Balanovsky are wonderful. The
footage is spectacular.”

-Jonathan Dariyanani, Independent Producer for K12, Inc.

“The Hooker & the Transvestite 2″ Takes First Place in Filmaka “Hard Times” Contest

For these two working girls, it sucks to be hungry. . .

It took a year to get the results back, but there in. . . a jury made of 12 Hollywood a-listers including Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog and Colin Filth have declared “La Puta y la Transvesti, parte 2″ (The Hooker and the Transvestite 2) the winner of the Filmaka “Hard Times” short film contest.

The first part of the contest received more than 1000 entries, of which 18 advanced to the next round by popular vote and by the other filmmakers. These 18 filmmakers then received 20 days and $1000 dollars to film the second part of the first film (ie, the second episode of a web series).

Now, we along with the other monthly winners will have to produce another short film, and the winner wins the production of a movie!

So if you have three minutes, check out this short which features Argentine film stars Lola Berthet and Luis Machin, as well as theater star Luis Aponte. The 25+ crew featured local legend Director of Photography Jorge Crespo as well as the support of Ajaf Cinema and Ñandu Sonido.

Whether we win the second round or not, we are planning to make this San Telmo Production’s first fiction feature film!

You can watch the short following the link below or on the side bar.

http://www.filmaka.com/watch=film_id=f9714e7a-cb1a-102c-a44a-00301b46cca5

Goals for Girls makes The New York International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF)

by Tracey Chandler, contributing blogger

The “Goals for Girls” documentary  short, produced and directed by Ginger Gentile and Gabriel Balanovsky of San Telmo Productions in Buenos Aires, is proud to announce that it has entered into the official competition of  The New York International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF) which begins on July 27th and runs until August 1st 2010.

The NYILFF which has been running since 1999 is now the premier Urban Latino film event in the country. It will be the 5th International Festival in which “Goals for Girls” (Goles y Metas) has entered into official competition. The short film follows the struggle of a group of girls from a shantytown in Buenos Aires to play a sport that is off-limits to women in Argentina: Soccer.  To form a real team, they need to fight against the boys who won’t let them use the field and their parents who prefer that they wash the dishes.

“Goals for Girls” Documentary’s Protagonists Excited about Video Workshop

Yesterday’s film shoot for “Goals for Girls” turned out to be more exciting than expected. While the goal for the shoot was to just get footage of the girls playing at a tournament outside of the shantytown, one of the girls got injured during a game when a player from the challenging team kicked her in the foot (even though the girl didn’t have the ball at the time). Even though there was an apology, the game had to be suspended due to accusations flying around and the threat of a fist fight. One of the main challenges of the girls is to turn their anger–their anger at being poor and being discriminated against–into something positive.

On a brighter note, a few girls came up to me as I was filming and asked me about how the camera works. One girl, Laura, said that she loved to take photos but doesn’t have her own camera. I gave her a quick lesson on the difference between an object being in focus and being out of focus, and for the rest of the shoot she followed me, looking at the LCD as I filmed her teammates vent at the camera. We also talked to the girls about the video workshop we’ll be starting for them soon, and a lot of them are excited to participate.  Go to http://www.goalsforgirlsthemovie.org to find out how you can help make the workshop a reality by making a tax deductible donation or becoming a sponsor.

At the end of the shoot, a reporter for a local paper showed up and she asked the girls some questions for a story she is working on. Belen said that she believes boys will always play better than them, but not because they have more experience but because they are stronger and “rougher”. Old stereotypes die-hard.

San Telmo Productions Wraps Filming Spanish Learning Videos for Joint Venture between K12 INC and Middlebury

Filming in Hotel Bauen Language Learning Videos for K12 Inc and Middlebury College

It’s not everyday that we at San Telmo Productions are part of a new global enterprise, but the New York Times recently reported on a new online language program that we filmed videos for in March in Buenos Aires. Middlebury College, a small Vermont college known for its rigorous foreign-language programs, is forming a venture with a commercial entity to develop online language programs for pre-college students. The college plans to invest $4 million for a 40 percent stake in what will become Middlebury Interactive Languages in partnership with K12 Inc.

“Goals for Girls” Documentary Mentioned in EH Star Newspaper

Sometimes its good to be the local girl . . . we’re kicking off our fundraising drive for our feature doc Goals for Girls and I just got this mention from my local hometown paper in East Hampton, NY. And I’m lucky that my hometown is filled with Hollywood insiders and one of the top festivals in the US (for the record, I’m a local and waited tables for the celebs, didn’t dine with them). My only complaint is that it makes me look far more like a saint than I am!

Here’s the first part, with a link to the end to the original:

Shining a Light on Poverty and Soccer
By Leigh Goodstein

(April 15, 2010)    G­­inger Gentile has always been an activist. From her beginnings as an overachiever in Catholic school in Southampton to her valedictorian speech at the East Hampton High School’s class

Photo: Emilliano Pozzoni Ginger Gentile has turned her camera on the plight of women soccer players in one of the largest slums in South America.

of 1998 graduation ceremony to her work with unions in Jakarta, Indonesia, she has always focused on what is wrong and tried to make it right, she said.

Ms. Gentile ended up in South America after traveling from New York City to Guatemala and Cuba on a mission to learn Spanish in order to work with unions for Hispanic garment workers in Manhattan. But she never returned to the city. More. . .

Goals for Girls Update: Chechu on the Sidelines

So we went to our first soccer practice of principal photography for  the feature documentary Goals for Girls, about a girls soccer team in the largest shantytown in Buenos Aires, the Villa 31. The team has grown dramatically since we started shooting in 2008! Now the field is filled with 25 girls from 13 to 21, kicking, passing, and yes, occasionally cursing! But one girl who is dying to play couldn’t. . . Chechu, who at 16 just became a mom.

Teenage Chechu watches soccer practice in the Shantytown with her newborn.

She was there at practice with her baby boy, Joaquin, in arms. We interviewed her about what it was like to spend 8 months on the sidelines as she was pregnant. . . for her, the pregnancy was a far bigger burden than motherhood, in part because now she can play soccer again and her son is very quiet. But today she was unable to practice because she was unable to get someone to watch her son. The father was going to, but had to work: “We’re broke”, she said.

So Chechu cheered from the sidelines. Neither her mother nor the father’s mother help much. While some volunteers who come to the practices can often look after older children, looking after a 4 month old is quite different.

After the practice we filmed the girls weekly meeting where they decided on a name for the team (finally!) which means “allies” in English and the colors of the team, which will be white and blue. The girls then talked about the importance of the anniversary of the military dictatorship which was celebrated the day before, and we interviewed a team member about her dreams to try out for the Boca Jrs women’s division, and how women face discrimination when they play soccer.All and all, a great start for our feature documentary!