Skip to main content

News

HITN

HITN and Chocolarte Cinema Win 3 Awards at the 6th Ponte Los Cortos Festival

July 28, 2020

Download PDF file

12 young people participated in the innovative digital cinematography program

12 young people participated in the innovative digital cinematography program

San Juan, Puerto Rico– HITN in alliance with Fundación Cortés and its Third Edition of the Young Filmmakers program, participated for the third consecutive year in the Ponte los Cortos Youth Film Festival. “Through these last three Festivals, we have seen the evolution of Chocolarte Cinema, which has distinguished itself by winning high-value awards in our Ponte Los Cortos Festival (FPLC), which explores careers. The core of this youthful production house, supported by a solid group of educators, has positioned itself with each Festival, and they are the prototype of the demographic we want to impact. With each Festival, we have witnessed great results given their acquired experience, commitment, and passion. Chocolarte Cinema’s work remains a great legacy in the world of youth cinematography,” said Rob Ortiz, founder, and producer of the Festival.

The Young Filmmakers Summer Program uses real life experiences that aims to improve participants’ digital literacy skills while undertaking an original filmmaking project. Last summer, 12 young people between 12 and 18 years old participated; the majority of students from public schools, inadequate resources, and residents of communities near Old San Juan. The short film, “When We Disconnect, We Connect,” garnered seven nominations at the FPLC. “I can only feel pride in what has been achieved by these young people. They achieved their goal which was to compete again this year at the Ponte Los Cortos Festival. In just two weeks, they managed to make a great short film that led to winning three awards: BEST MEN’S CAST, BEST TIME BAROMETER AND BEST SHORT FILM in the junior category”, said Yanira Meléndez, Manager of Funded Initiatives at HITN Puerto Rico and in charge of the program. For her part, Nahir Moreno, film teacher of the program, said, “Once again we demonstrated how much we can achieve when we set our mind to it, in spite of the limitations.”

This last Young Filmmakers program was in July 2019, during the protests which forced the resignation of Governor Rosselló, which significantly impacted Puerto Rican society. “Our program is in the facilities of the Cortés Foundation in Old San Juan, we were in the place where everything happened, it was challenging and educating at the same time,” added Yanira Meléndez.

About HITN

HITN-TV is the largest non-commercial Hispanic network in the United States, offering educational and cultural programming for the whole family. It reaches more than 44 million viewers in the US and Puerto Rico via DIRECTV, DISH Network, AT&T U-verse TV, Verizon FiOS TV, Comcast, Charter Spectrum, Frontier Mediacom, CenturyLink Prism, and Cablevision. For more information, please visit www.hitn.tv