Form Submission: IFCD Expert Evaluation form

The New Latin American cinema foundation has been working since 1985. Its first president was the world-wide known Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who supported the organization until his death. The Organization is one of the biggest and most prestigious promoters of Latin American cinema world-wide and continuously offers many activities that promote the knowledge and understanding of Latin American cinema by new audiences.

The activities address relevant issues. The methodology begins with a conference to present the state of the art of the subtitling and audio description in the film, audio-visual industry and publication, continues with the theoretical/practical regional workshop on the regulation standards of the subtitling and audio description on audio visual contents and its practical implementation, and finishes with a presentation to the Ibero-American audio visual and film authorities conference in order to raise awareness on the needs of people with sensory disabilities and sensitize them in order to promote changes into cultural policies. The evaluator thinks that a next step should be taken towards the effective creation of new policies, or the modification of the existing ones, in order to ensure a real and continuous impact in favor of the final beneficiaries of the project which are the people with sensory disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The conference (1.1) and the workshop (2.2) will be held one after the other at the end of June and the beginning of July 2019, and after that the activities happen in very specific days: Press conference (16/12/19) and attendance to the meeting of the Ibero American authorities (28/03 to 01/04, 2020). It would be convenient that the publication (activity 1.2) could be presented during the press conference.

The project identifies as the main direct beneficiaries the decision makers of public policies, researchers, film-makers, etc. And as indirect beneficiaries, the people with sensory disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. It’s not clear to the evaluator if the conference and the workshop is what the decision makers, the researchers, and the film-makers, need in order to promote the changes in public policies but are needed to widen the access of people with sensory disabilities to the audio-visual content produced in the region.

Considering the days that will take the implementation of the conference and the workshop, and that the rest of the activities can be understood as part of the routine activities of the Latin American cinema foundation, the applicant shall evaluate if a general direction, a general coordination, a general management, and an advisor of the project is needed, in order to make the necessary adjustments regarding the officials and the amount of salaries that will be granted. The evaluator considers that the main activities of the project do not justify the need of paying office material per eight months; and fuel for light vehicles, local and international calls and the use of cell phones, and electricity, all that for ten months. Those expenditures should be taken away from the project. The cost of the air transportation shall be more accurately quoted by the applicant because a cost between 1,000 and 1,500 is over estimated. The cost for the publication of the conference and the workshop results is $6,000, the applicant shall present at least two quotations to justify that amount.

The budget includes a specified overhead amount that represents 14% of the total requested amount, which is in compliance with the maximum of 30% of the total project budget. Nevertheless, some adjustments on the overhead cost shall be done by the applicant.

A total amount of 3,780 in self founding by the NGO. Nevertheless, because the specific days into which the project´s activities will be held, the cost of the electricity ($2,780) during all the period can’t be included as a contribution to the project costs.

The applicant will hire three people who will take care of the adequate use of the budget and follow the accounting procedures and regulations that are currently enforced in Cuba.

The project complies with this point.

The budget presents many inconsistencies that must be addressed by the applicant.

Due the great prestige of the applicant, the project can produce a common understanding and raise awareness into the needs of people with sensory disabilities and the convenience of producing or adjusting cultural policies to ensure their access to Latin American and Caribbean audiovisual content, but awareness is not enough to consider that a long-term benefit is produced. The project must include very specific actions to transform that awareness in specific policy changes, in the country or in the Latin American region.

The project doesn’t not demonstrate a high potential for structural change.

The role of the partners is properly described. The project demonstrates a very important background of the contractors but does not explain clearly the role that each contractor will have into the project implementation.

The applicant widely describes many convention programs and national laws that protect and support people with disabilities and their right of access to culture. Related to Cuba the project contributes to the activities that are being carried out to the “Tocando la Luz” (touching the light) project and the activities of the national association of people with visual impediment or disability. Nevertheless, not a specific national law or policy that could be updated is mentioned.

The main measure that will be put in place is the presentation of the results of the conference and the workshop to the Ibero-American audio-visual authorities conference.

Monitoring in the region through the observatory of the Latin American movie and audio-visual content in order to verify if the audio-visual contents produced in the region are accessible to people with sensory disabilities, the education and training activities, and the inclusion of accessible audio-visual contents into film festivals.