MULTI MEDIA PACKAGE
* Max Follmer, Eric Medina, Jacob Soboroff & Dorian Otero, TakePart.com, “Civics in a Minute”
* Pamela Greenwalt, Damon Romine, Leslie Simmons & SAG AFTRA Communications Staff,
Entertainment Union Membership Digital Publication, “SAG-AFTRA Magazine Digital Issue:
Put on a Happy Face”
* Staff, 89.3 FM – KPCC Los Angeles, “Mars Curiosity Rover”
* Michele Steuven, Kris Widger, Monica Rizzo & Aili Nahas, People/People.com, “TCAs”
* THR.com, The Hollywood Reporter, “THR’s Oscar Roundtable Videos”

FEATURE
* Nadia Brandt, Bloomberg News, “Asian Home Buyers Buoy New Homes in California’s
Orange County”
* Paige Brettingen, Neon Tommy, “iPals: Connecting Students Half a World Away”
* Sal Cardoni, TakePart.com, “Not In My Backyard”
* Vicki Chang, The Atlantic, “The Punk Rocker Who Would Be Judge”
* Catherine Green, Neon Tommy, “Police-Teen Advisory Board Bridges The Gap in LA”* Sarah Parvini, NeonTommy.com, “Tension Back Home: SoCals Iranian Community Feels the
Heat

Winners wil be announced at the annual awards gala at the Biltmore downtown on June 23.

To view the entire list of finalists, please click on the following link: http://lapressclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Finalist_Socal_20131.pdf

To view video in a new window, please click on the following link: http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/state-194-the-film/519526a3fe344448d600053b

The new Pivot cable channel’s mission might be to entertain and encourage social activism, but its founders say it won’t have a political point of view. That was an attraction for Meghan McCain, the 28-year-old daughter of GOP Sen. John McCain, who is producing and hosting an issues-based show on the network.

“My generation doesn’t need labels and boxes in the way earlier generations did,” says McCain. “It’s OK to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal.” Pivot has ordered an initial 10 episodes of Raising McCain that will feature her interviews with politicians and celebrities — even her famous father.

“Everything is being drawn from my own life,” says McCain. “I’m struggling. I don’t know if I want to get married or have kids. I don’t know what to do when a guy sends a sexy text message. You want to be with the times, but I’m pretty conservative when it comes to things like that.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/meghan-mccain-her-pivot-show-520996

Can Jeff Skoll do what Al Gore could not?

As the former vice president’s cable channel Current — once hyped as an engine of positive social change — fades to black after its sale to Al Jazeera, Skoll’s Participant Media is preparing for the Aug. 1 launch of Pivot, a channel with a similar mission to entertain and inspire activism.

Will it work? Skoll, the first president of eBay who has invested in 42 socially relevant films including Lincoln and The Help, has committed several hundred million dollars to Pivot. And his strategy differs in many key respects, with the goal being to appeal to the elusive 18-to-34 demographic.

“We’re starting with entertainment,” says Evan Shapiro, the channel’s president, who was recruited from IFC/Sundance. “All due respect to the former vice president … but they started with, ‘We’re important and you must watch.’ That turned a generation of people off.” Instead of Current’s news and user-generated content — “broccoli with bran muffins,” says Shapiro — Pivot will offer “entertainment meant to pull you in and then challenge you to do something with the information.”

To do that, Participant has ordered about 300 hours of original programming, including a variety show from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a scripted, modern-day take on William Shakespeare from The Great Gatsby writer Craig Pearce and a joint venture with Univision to create at least 10 documentaries. That’s on top of selected reruns like Friday Night Lights.

Participant CEO Jim Berk won’t say how much this will cost, but it’s clear Skoll’s checkbook is open. “We have a founder, a visionary in Jeff Skoll, who said this is the goal: ‘Here is the money you need to do it. Don’t worry about the bottom line in the short term. The value will be created in the long term,’ ” says Berk.

The vision goes beyond targeted programming. Pivot calls its business plan “disruptive” because its ad-supported cable channel will launch in more than 40 million U.S. TV homes at the same time as a Netflix-style streaming video service to attract so-called “cord cutters” — people who don’t buy cable. Some believe that strategy is antithetical to the cable business model, but Shapiro says operators are on board because Pivot will be sold to consumers via broadband divisions as opposed to the TV side. “Once they hear this idea,” says Shapiro, “they slam the table and say, ‘It’s about time.’ ”

But so far Time Warner Cable, Comcast and others have not signed up beyond legacy carriage from two channels Participant acquired earlier this year — Documentary and Halogen. At launch, most Pivot subscribers will be via DirecTV and Dish paid tiers, not basic.

The timing also is an issue, says analyst Todd Juenger, noting that cable operators are bumping off independently owned channels. “There couldn’t be a worse time to launch an independent cable channel,” he says. “So along comes somebody with no proven track record asking to get paid by cable companies who see programming costs going out of control.”

In addition, without brand equity, Pivot will need to heavily spend to generate attention. But Participant execs believe that making small strides with an elusive demo will distinguish the network. “The good thing going for them is that millennials are hard to reach,” says Francois Lee, senior vp at MediaVest. “Even if it’s a smaller property, if you can reach them, there is possibly a valid reason to give it a try.”

Angela Courtin, chief content officer of Aegis Media Americas, likes what she has heard. “What they are setting out to do could be game-changing,” she says. But she cautions: “The millennial consumer is fickle. Will they embrace this? It all comes down to the stories they tell.”

Berk says Pivot is the first of several channels Participant plans to offer in the U.S. and worldwide. “So much of TV is based on viewing habits from 10 years ago,” he says. “We’re trying to build something not just for people watching today but for how much of the next generation is watching television.”

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/participants-pivot-aims-avoid-current-520995

May 16, 2013, 4:00 a.m.

In the 65 years since the creation of Israel and the scattering of millions of Palestinians from their historic homeland, hope of resolving the core crisis of the Middle East has risen to joyous pinnacles like Camp David and crashed into despair with deadly outbreaks of violence and bloodshed.

When Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in 2009 launched a two-year program to build up the economy and institutions of democratic rule, his vow to show the world that Palestine was ready for statehood inspired filmmakers Dan Setton of Jerusalem and Elise Pearlstein of Los Angeles to document his mission.

The film, “State 194,” blends scenes of grass-roots activism by idealistic young bloggers and pacifist groups like Parents Circle and J Street with Fayyad’s diligent work to build a state from the ground up. It is a chronicle that captures popular yearning for an enduring peace as well as frustration with political leaders on both sides who have repeatedly squandered chances for compromise and reconciliation.

Fayyad, a U.S.-educated economist and former International Monetary Fund banker, resigned his Palestinian Authority post in April, ending a tenure that won respect from global peace brokers but was undermined by rivalries within the two largest Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah.

“State 194,” as Palestine would become should it gain United Nations recognition, premieres Friday in New York and Los Angeles. The debut coincides with the 65th anniversary of the nakba, or “the catastrophe,” the 1948 flight of Palestinians from the new state of Israel.

Although the documentary on Fayyad’s mission ends before his resignation, Setton, who directed the film, and Pearlstein, who produced it, said in an interview with The Times that opportunities for peace and statehood nevertheless endure:

Q: When you set out to make this film, did you have the expectation or hope that the film would end with the achievement of statehood for Palestine?

Setton: I had hoped there would be some advance in the direction of reconciliation, but I didn’t have illusions that it was all going to work out like a miracle. I did believe in one aspect very strongly, and that was what Salam Fayyad was set to do, which is to change the mind-set of the people in his country. The mind-set and the life that we have unfortunately gotten used to here is a mirror image of the two peoples. We each have a demonic image of the other. Fayyad took it upon himself to change this image. One of his strongest models was the immense power of nonviolence. He is almost Gandhi-like in advocating this.

Q: Salam Fayyad is such a key figure in your film. How does his resignation affect the prospects for resuming peace talks and achieving statehood?

Setton: There was a loss of momentum even before his resignation. I’ve spoken with him recently, and he said he resigned his job but he hasn’t resigned his mission. He will push Palestinians to continue working on what he believes will create the conditions of statehood.

Q: A lot has changed since you concluded filming, with the fighting in Gaza late last year and the Israeli elections in January. Was “State 194” intended as a snapshot of where the pursuit of a Palestinian state was last year, rather than a comprehensive account of the advances and setbacks?

Setton: This film is certainly not a Hollywood classic film where you have a beginning, a middle and a great victory in the end, despite all hardships. The film is about a reality that is very complex. We tried to make it as clear as possible for the many underinformed people that are in our audience. But it’s not really a snapshot — that minimizes what happened in this region that has gone through tremendous change. Despite what people may think, there is more possibility today to achieve reconciliation and reach an agreement. It won’t happen in a short time, but the possibilities are there.

Pearlstein: When we were making the film we were fully aware that we didn’t know how Fayyad’s plan would end. For years his position had been unstable, never knowing whether he would remain in office or not. We were trying to make sure the film served as a historical documentation of the time when change felt really possible.

Q: You have mentioned misconceptions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in your wider audience. What are some of the circumstances of which viewers are unaware or misinformed?

Pearlstein: In general in the United States, and in particular in the American Jewish community, there is a lack of exposure to images of the conflict that are not violent. Some of the things that have been most fascinating to me have been the normalized versions of Palestinian life on display, the leaders who are well educated and speaking out against violence. There’s no blood in this film. It’s all about the constructive building of institutions and a political movement.

Q: The film expresses the frustration of many Israelis and Palestinians with the status quo of suspension, having neither peace nor war. Why isn’t there more of a sense of urgency in getting peace talks back on track and working on the mechanics of a two-state solution?

Setton: It’s a mixture of frustration and indifference on both sides. I would say it is resignation on the part of Palestinians. In shooting the film we took a lot of aerial shots and wide shots, as we thought it would be a good cinematic approach to rise up from the day-to-day little things and show a bigger picture. The big picture is changing. I went to Ramallah before I even knew Fayyad so I was able to see how the city changed, how it has turned into a little Amman with cafes and shopping malls. Something was happening. There have been a lot of setbacks, but the possibility is still there. I wish I could shout out from the top of every building that “We can do this!”

Pearlstein: The problem is that nobody wants violence, but violence creates a sense of urgency. With this film we were trying to create a sense of urgency before violence resumes. It’s a tricky thing, because in the absence of violence people get complacent. It felt the whole time we were making this film that we were in a calm before the storm.

Q: There was some speculation after the Gaza fighting in November and the cease-fire that ended it of Fatah and Hamas reconciling and uniting in the pursuit of statehood. How likely do you consider that happening?

Setton: Even though Hamas and violence go very well together in the minds of Israelis and others, Hamas can be talked to, and there can be an agreement reached. They have to solve this problem. Fayyad explained well that it would be a mistake to try to do reconciliation ahead of everything else. Forget that. We can reach that place but by addressing first the fundamental issue in the way — security. Until we reach agreement on that issue, we can’t move forward.

Q: What is at risk if Israel continues to build more settlements while there are no active negotiations on borders and possible land swaps?

Setton: Everything. The risk is that they’re occupying more and more land on which Palestinians are supposed to have their future state. It works completely against the idea of a two-state solution. It is working toward creation of a dual-national state in which the Israelis are going to be inferior from a demographic point of view. They are shooting themselves in the foot.

Q: The Arab League has recently elevated its role in pursuit of a peace accord and Palestinian statehood. What are the prospects for this broader international approach to succeed in getting peace talks restarted?

Setton: That is always helpful. It also reflects change in the region. As a result of the unsuccessful “Arab Spring” rebellions, we in this region and the world in general are in an age of reassessment, in the economy and across the board.

Q: Has President Obama’s election to a second term and the renewed attention on the Middle East by Secretary of State John Kerry changed the outlook for a return to the peace process?

Setton: Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize early in his tenure and people thought he was going to do a lot for peace. But some compare that to a director who has a great idea for a film and gets the Oscar before shooting a single frame.

Pearlstein: Our film begins with Obama’s [2009] speech in Cairo and the promise he brought with him. I think it’s important for people internationally to hold leaders to be accountable for the promises they make.

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-global-voices-palestinian-statehood-20130515,0,5700031,full.story

Posted by Josh Hicks on May 9, 2013 at 6:00 am

Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio joined with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) to headline a screening of the documentary “A Place at the Table” at the Rayburn House Office Building and met with members of Congress to encourage funding to fight hunger, according to a press release from promoters.

A report last year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said nearly 15 percent of Americans were “food insecure” in 2011, meaning they did not always have money for nutrition. ”A Place at the Table,” which features Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges and Colicchio, examines that and other issues relating to hunger in the U.S.

The farm bill sets policy for agricultural subsidies and rural-development programs. It also includes funding for anti-poverty programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food credits for low- and no-income Americans — the program was previously known as the food stamp program.

Congress’s agriculture committees plan to begin work next week on a new farm bill that would trim funding for SNAP. The Senate plans to propose a reduction of $400 million, while the House committee will call for an overhaul of the program and a cut of $2 billion, according to an Associated Press report.

Federal costs for the food-credit program reached $72 billion in 2011, more than double the amount for 2007, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Critics note that the growth largely occurred after President Obama expanded the program through an economic-stimulus bill in 2009.

The Senate agriculture committee will begin its markup proceedings with a meeting next Tuesday. A similar session was not listed on the Web site for the counterpart House committee.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/05/09/top-chef-star-urges-congress-to-support-anti-hunger-programs/

One new exhibitor at this year’s Cable Show in D.C. is Pivot, Participant Media’s new television network targeted at Millennials.

The annual Cable Show is a little more than a month away, with the number of exhibitors growing every day. That includes plenty of newbies to the exhibit floor at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in D.C. (June 10-12). The floor will again feature Imagine Park, a live portal for presentations and demos, as well as a special product showcase. New this year is The Observatory, an immersive attraction that tells cable’s story—something that’s important for the Hill crowd expected to turn out in strong numbers given this year’s setting. As for new exhibitors, NCTA’s annual conference is up to 43 at last count (10 first-timer signed up in just the last week). In terms of exhibitors, the show is tracking on paced with last year’s show in Boston. Here we highlight 10 exhibition floor first-timers and what to expect.

Al Jazeera America: Al Jazeera is not a complete neophyte, having exhibited in 2008 when the Cable Show was in New Orleans. But this year it will be showing off its brand new network set to launch later this year. It purchased Current TV in January, giving it a foothold at launch. However, not all of Current’s distributors are sticking around. Time Warner Cable dropped Current as soon as the purchase was announced (it had been looking at dropping the channel before the acquisition). Al Jazeera has been beefing up its news bureaus in preparation of the launch of Al Jazeera America, and last month announced the hire of its first anchor, former CNN business correspondent Ali Velshi.

Digitalsmiths: This company is all about helping consumers find the content they want. Its clients include Univision, Cisco, Turner Sports, and it just announced a deal in Jan with Time Warner Cable. It’s “Seamless Discovery” tech makes recommendations to viewers based on past viewing habits. In Jan, Digitalsmiths announced it had surpassed 1 billion API transactions per month, a figure that represents the delivery of personalized search results and recommendations to millions of consumers across North America.

Pivot: Here’s your chance to meet Participant Media’s new television network, Pivot. Participant is turning recent acquisitions Halogen and Documentary Channel into Pivot come Aug 1, which should give it 40+mln subs at launch. Participant is the company who produced docs such as “Food, Inc” and “An Inconvenient Truth,” as well as Steven Spielberg-directed “Lincoln.” Programming for Pivot include a docu-talk series with Meghan McCain (daughter of Republican AZ Sen. John McCain) and a modern period drama called “WILL.” Interestingly, in addition to the traditional carriage route, Pivot will work with MVPDs to offer a broadband-only subscription, including a linear stream of the network and access to programming on demand.

Qwilt: All this streaming can have a negative impact on carrier networks. Enter startup Qwilt, which says it gives operators a unified platform to deliver online video in their networks with improved video quality and cost containment. The leadership team includes veterans of Cisco, Crescendo Networks, Juniper and BroadSoft. Qwilt uses “transparent cache” technology to make video delivery more efficient. The product is essentially a plug-and-play device that can be dropped easily into existing networks without requiring any infrastructure changes.

Veveo: Stop by Veveo’s booth to get a first-hand demo of its “Conversational Platform,” which allows users to communicate with devices by simply talking. The firm is in trials now with cable operators, with chief marketing officer Sam Vasisht saying it’s possible deployments could happen this year. Talking navigation is poised to be a hot topic, with DirecTV launching an app this summer for iPhones and Android devices that allows you to change the channel with your voice. It uses Nuance Communications system, which features the same synthetic female voice as iPhone’s Siri. At a D.C. even in March, Comcast corp chairman/CEO Brian Roberts demonstrated a voice-activated guide that has launched on an iPhoned and that Comcast home to launch on its next-generation remotes. “We’ve listened to customers. It’s tough to click buttons,” Roberts said.

SAIC: Fortune 500 company SAIC will be at the show this year showing off a captioning software product. Its “Omnifluent” suite of human language technology products enables automated translation and transcription of multilingual audio and text. SAIC’s solution eliminates the need for manual transcription or translation, and its metadata development aims to improve SEO strategies. It includes more than 25 languages for machine-translation and more than 10 languages for automatic speech recognition.

LG Electronics: Here’s another big company making a first-time appearance at the show. LG says it is the first Smart TV maker to make PayPal available on its Smart TVs. It’s also stepping up its game in Ultra HD, working with the NCAA, CBS Sports and Turner Sports last month to capture the Men’s Basketball Final Four in 4K as part of a closed-circuit demo of Ultra HD. Private viewing locations at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome featured highlights in on LF’s 84-inch Ultra HD sets. LG was the first company to launch an Ultra HD model in the US last fall. It has a 55- and 65-inch class on the way.

ABox42: Germany-based ABox42 is a maker of OTT set-top boxes. Its M12 set-top is based on chipset from Broadcom and is built on open Web standards. It’s in the market with over 100 deployed OTT services, such as VOD, catch-up TV services, online video recording, IPTV/OTT FreeTV as well as OTT PayTV services and web-browser functionality. Earlier this year, the company joined the Smart TV Alliance, which is devoted to stimulating cross-platform Smart TV apps and services.

Youtoo Technologies: The company acquired AmericanLifeTV in 2009, relaunching AmericanLife as Youtoo TV in 2011 and an accompanying social network Youtoo.com. Last year, Youtoo began licensing its interactive TV service to others. Oxygen paired with Youtoo in April for a user-generated video series around the second season premiere of tattoo competition series “Best Ink.” Youtoo also integrated its interactive video tech into “Divorce Court,” letting fans responds to a “Question of the Week” by recording a video.

Time Warner Cable: Yep, you read that right. While the MSO has always had a presence at the show, including with tech vendors or in exhibits such as the Broadband Home, this marks its first official exhibit. Comcast is the only other MSO with a booth. Operators typically don’t exhibit. Look for it to show off its wares, such as the TWC TV app that now allows consumers to access on demand programming and a small amount of live streams outside the home. Live feeds are available of Aspire, BBC America and others. Inside the home, TWC TV allows users to watch 200+ channels. No official word yet on what TWC will be demoing, but given the importance of home monitoring right now, we expect to see its IntelligentHome.

http://www.cablefax.com/cfp/just_in/10-First-time-Cable-Show-Exhibitors-Worth-Checking-Out_57928.html

Despite our country’s great wealth and enormous resources, hunger and food insecurity issues are far too pervasive in our society. In fact, nearly one in four children and four in 10 adults live in food insecure households in Santa Barbara County.

While we are fortunate to have innovative community-based programs to feed our hungry friends and neighbors, the need is truly staggering. Yet, those startling figures are rarely talked about. But before we can truly address the problem of hunger in America, we all need to first acknowledge that it’s a problem.

This need for us to start the conversation on food insecurity in our community is why I recently hosted a screening of A Place at the Table, a documentary about hunger in America. Following the screening, a panel of local leaders discussed the magnitude of hunger in our community and some of the innovative ways we are trying to end hunger.

An audience of more than 100 people heard presentations from Jeff Bridges, spokesman for No Kid Hungry; Dr. David Cash, superintendent of the Santa Barbara Unified School District; Erik Talkin, CEO of the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County; Kathleen de Chadenedes, director of the Orfalea Foundation’s School Food Initiative; and Ben Romo, executive director of Santa Barbara County’s First 5 program.

A Place at the Table goes beyond surface issues and investigates the link between hunger and health issues, such as obesity and chronic health conditions including diabetes. Recognizing this connection is key to improving our food security programs.

With obesity costing our country nearly $200 billion per year, small investments in food literacy could reap significant benefits down the road. Luckily, from Santa Maria to Santa Barbara, projects like the Healthy School Pantry Program are working to empower county residents to stretch their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dollars farther and eat healthier with the resources they do have. In light of this cutting-edge programming, last year the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County was awarded Feeding America’s “Hunger’s Hope” award.

Another important theme in the film is the unique ability of our schools to set kids up for success through their food policies. I recently participated in a briefing on Capitol Hill with No Kid Hungry about the importance of expanding participation in the federal school breakfast program by allowing students to eat breakfast in class, ensuring that kids are ready to learn. Similarly, we have set up a free school breakfast program, modeled on the school lunch program, for low-income families. However, only 45 percent of kids eligible for the breakfast program are participating. If we could increase that number to 100 percent, it would go a long way to reducing hunger in our children and help them be better prepared for school.

Here on the Central Coast, the Orfalea Foundation has also harnessed the unique position of our schools and done incredible work improving the nutrition of school lunches, through the School Food Initiative. Last year, I visited Adam Elementary School in Santa Maria to see this project first hand. The work being done in our school cafeterias is truly remarkable. Our kids are eating lunches that you’d mistake for a meal prepared in one of the Central Coast’s nicest restaurants, learning the importance of fresh, nutritious food. This experience will set them up to make healthier choices as they grow.

As was highlighted by the panel of local experts who spoke at the screening, there are real reasons for optimism in our community. The innovative public-private partnerships addressing hunger in the county could serve as a national model for how to unite government with nonprofit organizations to more effectively tackle hunger and improve health and nutrition. We are incredibly fortunate in Santa Barbara County to have innovative nonprofit organizations such as the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County and the Orfalea Foundation that fill the gaps in federal nutrition programs both in providing healthy food to those in need and improving nutrition education.

In order to improve the long-term health of our country, it’s incumbent upon us to invest not just in feeding our friends and neighbors who are hungry, but also empowering them with food literacy required to lead a healthy life. We clearly have models of how that can be done effectively and efficiently through innovative projects already at work in our communities. It’s time to spread the word so that communities across our nation can benefit from our successes.

— Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, represents California’s 23rd Congressional District.

http://www.noozhawk.com/article/043013_capps_santa_barbara_model_attacking_hunger

To view the video, please click on the following link: http://www.milkeninstitute.org/presentations/mediapage.taf?ID=3797

Participant Media is reteaming with No star Gael García Bernal for the first film under their recently-launched Participant PanAmerica initiative, the Western-inspired action adventure El Ardor. Co-starring Alice Braga (Elysium, I Am Legend), El Ardor has begun filming in Argentina under the direction of Pablo Fendrik (Blood Appears, The Mugger), who wrote the screenplay.

García Bernal portrays a mysterious man who emerges from the Argentinean rainforest to rescue the kidnapped daughter (Braga) of a poor farmer after mercenaries murder her father and take over his property.

Juan Pablo Gugliotta and Nathalia Videla Peña and Gael García Bernal serve as the film’s producers, with Participant’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King, Canana’s Pablo Cruz and Telefe`s Axel Kuschevatzky as executive producers.

An Argentinean/Brazilian/French co-production being financed through Participant PanAmerica, the film’s co-producers are Magma Cine (Argentina), Bananeira Filmes (Brazil) and Manny Films (France). Magma’s Argentinian partners are Aleph Media and Telefe International. BAC Films is handling international sales outside North American and Latin American territories.

Participant CEO Jim Berk said, “After our terrific experience on No, we’re excited to be reuniting with Gael and Canana for our first Participant PanAmerica film and to be expanding our footprint into this important segment of the global marketplace.”

Jonathan King, Participant EVP of Production said, “Pablo Fendrik and his partners at Magma Cine are exactly the kinds of ambitious young filmmakers we are hoping to work with through PanAmerica. And it’s always great to be in business with our friends at Canana.”

Added Magma Cine Partner Juan Pablo Gugliotta, “We are truly glad to be shooting this project which represents the emergence of our main talent, Pablo Fendrik, as well as his comeback to the big screen and we are also really grateful for the support of all our associates at local, regional and international level. Magma Cine is proud to be part of the first film by Participant PanAmerica. We are absolutely positive that El Ardor will be on par with the expectations of all those who have granted us their trust.”

Pablo Cruz, Partner at Canana said, “Pablo Fendrik is perhaps one of the most interesting directors out of his generation, we met him years ago when his film El Asaltante was playing at the Critics Week in Cannes, we immediately wanted to work with him. It’s been a fantastic process and I know Gael has had the necessary time to develop with him an unforgettable character. We can’t wait to see this film on the screen.”

Launching earlier this year, Participant PanAmerica is an initiative to develop and finance 10-12 films over five years for and from Latin America with Mexico’s Canana (Sin Nombre, Miss Bala), Chile’s Fabula (Young and Wild, Gloria) and Colombia’s Dynamo (Undertow, The Hidden Face).

About Participant Media
Participant (participantmedia.com) is a global entertainment company founded in 2004 by Jeff Skoll to focus on feature films, television, publishing and digital content that inspire social change. Participant’s more than 40 films include GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, SYRIANA, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, FOOD, INC., WAITING FOR ‘SUPERMAN’, THE HELP, CONTAGION and LINCOLN. Participant’s social action campaigns and digital network TakePart.com continue the conversation and connect audiences to a wealth of content and actions. Its new millennial television network Pivot (pivot.tv), launching this summer in 40 million-plus homes, is TV for The New Greatest Generation.

About Magma Cine
Magma Cine (magmacine.com.ar) was set up by Juan Pablo Gugliotta, Pablo Fendrik and Nathalia Videla Peña in 2006.

Magma Cine is a production company that has produced 9 films over the past 7 years including many of the award winning films of what can be labeled as the “New Argentine Cinema,” films that, thanks to their continuing participation in the international scene, keep growing in number and garnering recognition.

Recently they’ve released Mala, Israel Adrián Caetano’s latest feature film distributed commercially in Latin America by Buena Vista-The Walt Disney Company.

It has also produced several documentary miniseries for Argentine TV and the multi-awarded horror film The Second Death, which has been showcased in the top genre film festivals in the world.

About Canana
Canana (canana.tv), founded in 2005 by Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, Pablo Cruz, and most recently joined by partner and CEO Julián Levin, is a pioneer of bringing Latin American talent to a global stage. Over the past 7 years, Canana has produced over twenty films including Abel, Luna’s first feature length film, Sin Nombre, Miss Bala, directed by Gerardo Naranjo, and most recently, the English language film, Chavez, directed by Luna and based on the life of Mexican-American labor union organizer César E. Chávez. In 2012, Canana expanded its operations in the U.S. with Canana L.A., bridging the talent pool between Latin America and the U.S. with such projects as A Man Must Die, a political thriller produced in collaboration with Focus Features, with Naranjo set to direct. Canana’s television arm produced Soy Tu Fan, starring Ana Claudia Talancón, Niño Santo, which is production of its second season. The partners’ passion for film has also reflected through Documental Ambulante, a traveling documentary festival that has taken over 200 documentaries to communities across México, is in its 9th installment. Most recently, Canana has joined forces with IM Global to create a sales company focusing on the sales of Latin American films.