Proposal to the ORGANIZATION: Sponsoring the 2012 Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival

In 2010, a group of professors from three local colleges came together to address a unique need: the lack of Latin American Film screenings in Grand Rapids. After hosting two successful years, we are gearing up to host a third Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival in 2012. Using our past experience as a guide, we have created a plan for organizing and hosting next years festival. We are planning to increase programming by including additional films and starting an internship program. However, to make these plans possible, we need your help. With financial support from your organization, we will be able to fulfill our plans for the 2012 festival. In return for your organizations generous support, we will include your name and logo on our programs, posters, press releases, and on our website. We will also verbally thank your organization prior to each event. Hundreds of Grand Rapids residents from diverse backgrounds will see your name and logo and know how much you care about celebrating diversity and creating healthy communities. We created this proposal to share our plan with you and to ask for your generous support. We will start by introducing the festival and the unique need it addresses. Then, we will demonstrate how our plan to organize and host the 2012 festival will work. We will also tell you about the different benefits we expect. Finally, we will include a budget to show you how your organizations investment will work in tandem with other gifts and funding to make the 2012 festival possible.

Who we are and why we matter

The Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival will organize and host a third annual festival in 2012. The 2012 festival will include additional films, a new internship program, and increased attendance. We are requesting financial sponsorship to help underwrite the festivals costs and make our plans become a reality.

What is the festival?

The Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival is a three-day long film festival held each April in Grand Rapids, MI. Our mission is to create a public forum for Grand Rapids residents to see and discuss contemporary, critically-acclaimed Latin American films that might not otherwise be screened in Grand Rapids. Additionally, we provide students a unique way to explore Latin American culture, practice their Spanish skills, analyze films, and learn about the film festival organizing process.

History of the festival

We first got started in 2010 when professors Zulema Moret and Daniel Garcia decided to do something about the lack of Latin American film screenings in Grand Rapids. The two professors invited several colleagues and together we formed a committee to organize a Latin American film festival. We opened the first festival at Wealthy Theatre in April 2010. The festival featured seven films from across latin America and a keynote address by film scholar Marvin dLugo of Clark University. Surprisingly, the first festival attracted over 500 people with an average of 65 people per event!

fig. 1. Zulema Moret introducing the keynote speaker, 2010 festival

Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival

Proposal to the ORGANIZATION

The second festival opened in April 2011 at Celebration! Cinema before moving to Wealthy Theatre. A major highlight of the 2011 festival was a keynote by screenwriter Oscar Torres after screening his semi-autobiographical film Innocent Voices (Voces inocentes). The second festival also saw an increased audience size of nearly 680 people, or an average of 85 people per event.

2010 Films La nana (The Maid)- Chile Al otro lado (To the Other Side)- Mexico O caminho das nuvens (The Middle of the World)- Brazil Sin nombre- United States Viva Cuba - Cuba El Bao del Papa (The Popes Toilet)- Uruguay La Virgen negra (The Black Virgin)- Venezuela 2011 Films El Estudiante (The Student)- Mexico Maldeamores (Lovesickness)- Puerto Rico Voces Inocentes (Innocent Voices)- El Salvador Contracoriente (Undertow)- Peru Sangre de mi sangre (Blood of my Blood)- United States El Secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes)- Argentina

Who organizes the festival?

The festival is primarily organized by a small committee of professors from Aquinas College, Calvin College, and the Grand Valley State University. Each member takes on certain responsibilities such as writing press releases or working with film distributors. Programming and planning decisions are made by the whole committee. Office support is provided through the GVSU Latin American Studies program.

Why do we still need a festival?

The affect of Latinos in Grand Rapids is undeniable. According to the Census, nearly 15% of all Grand Rapids residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.1 Numerous cultural centers and programs like the Hispanic Center of West Michigan exist to serve Grand Rapids large Latino population. However, none of these programs offer Latin American film screenings on a regular basis. Other organizations like Wealthy Theatre, the UICA, and Celebration! Cinema do not offer Latin American films either. Thus, the festival is not only filling a need, but it works in tandem with other organizations to celebrate diversity and promote understanding. Additionally, thousands of local college students study Spanish. For example, at GVSU alone, nearly 1,800 students enroll in a Spanish class each semester compared with only about 800 in every other language combined.2 All of these students are required to attend and report on a cultural event. During the last two years, many students have opted to fulfill this requirement by attending the festival. However, students are not only fulfilling a course requirement. By attending our films, students are developing their listening comprehension skills, and vocabulary while they learn more about Latino cultures. We want to continue serving the Grand Rapids community by hosting a third festival. Your organizations support will help us build off of our previous successes to expand the festival by including additional films and a new internship program.

Moving Forward

fig 2. Students participating in a post-film discussion, 2010 Festival

Organizing and hosting plans

The complex process of creating a film festival can be broken down into three major parts. First, we will spend several months organizing every aspect of the festival. Second, we will host the festival over a three day period in April. Finally, we will evaluate the festival to see what worked well and what we can improve 2

Grand Rapids Latin American Film Festival

Proposal to the ORGANIZATION

Works Cited
US Census Bureau. 2010 Census Information. Accessed 1 March, 2011. http://www.census.gov/main/ www/cen2000.html.
1

Institutional Analysis. The Grand Valley State University. Accessed 1 March, 2011. http://www.gvsu.edu/ ia.
2

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