The Dominican Republic Global Film Festival (DRGFF) team met with Haitian filmmaker and La Fémis Director Raoul Peck at the Cannes Film Festival as part of their efforts to develop contacts and participation opportunities.

As part of their push to develop contacts and participation opportunities at the Cannes Film Festival, the Dominican Republic Film Festival management team met with Haitian filmmaker, Raoul Peck, one of the most distinguished figures in the international film community. Mr. Peck, born in Haiti and raised in Zaire and France, was recently appointed President of the Board of La Fémis by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

At the meeting, several points were discussed including cinematography in Haiti after February’s devastating earthquake as well as the prospect of taking steps to create an atmosphere of cooperation between La Fémis, FUNGLODE and Haiti.

La Fémis (École Nationale Supérieure des Métiers de l'Image et du Son, formerly known as Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques, is the French state film school. FEMIS is an acronym for Fondation Européenne pour les Métiers de l'Image et du Son.

Based in Paris, La Fémis offers courses balanced between artistic research, professional development and technical training. Its alumni have won the three most prestigious film prizes which are the Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Palm, Venice’s Golden Lyon and Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear thus making it the most awarded film school in the world, surpassing Beijing’s Film Academy and New York’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Peck was very excited at the prospect of this connection which could lead to the development of film projects in both countries, with the concretization of a collaboration agreement between La Fémis and the Global Media Arts Institute (GMAI).

The meeting with Peck took place on Saturday May 15 at the Canal + station during this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Representing the DRGFF were Technical Director, Omar de la Cruz; Asunción Sanz, Director of Inter-Institutional Relations; Yvette Marichal, Director of Public Relations and Marketing; Taína Rodríguez, Publicity Coordinator and Mrs. Nicole Guillemet, DRGFF Programming Consultant, who coordinated the meeting.