The 10th SIGNIS TV Producers Seminar took place in San Jose de Costa Rica from October 6-9, 2011. Organized by the SIGNIS TV Desk with the collaboration of CELAM (Latin American Bishops’ Conference), the seminar was hosted by the Clarisse sisters at the Casa Pastoral Santa Maria Ines Teresa in Moravia.
Participants came from Central and South America (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay), but also from the US and Europe (Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Russia) and as far as Asia (Hong Kong and Taiwan). The seminar gave the opportunity to this vast array of producers to showcase their television channels, newest productions or multimedia initiatives.
Also present at the seminar were Susana Nuin, Executive Secretary of the Communication department of CELAM, and Gustavo Andújar, Vice-President of SIGNIS-World. The organizing team consisted of Asdrúbal Mena (TeleFides – Canal 40 from Costa Rica), Lawrence Pieters and Ricardo Yáñez (SIGNIS TV Desk).
The “Show and Tell” sessions, where the participants are presenting their institutions or sharing their latest productions, were once again the core of the seminar. Many of the “new” participants presented their channels or production houses: the Vatican news service Rome Reports, represented by Carlos Garde; the Costarican cannel Telefides – Canal 40, represented by Saray Amador and Frank Cárdenas; the FETV cannel from Panama, represented by Teresa Wong and P. Oscar Valderrama; the Jesús TV cannel of Guatemala, represented by Ligia Barrascout; the Peruvian channel JN 19, represented by Jorge Morote; the TV cannel and media institution Cançao Nova, represented by Raphael Leal; Canal 48 from Honduras, represented by Beatriz Echeverría, P. Ricardo Banegas and Epifanio López; the Vicaría de la Solidaridad de Uruguay, represented by Carla Lima, who presented the program “Código de barras”; the Bolivian channel Católica Televisión, represented by P. Guillermo Siles; and the Archdiocese of Asunción (Paraguay), represented by Mónica Ayala, presenting the program “La Iglesia dice…”.
The “regulars” of the SIGNIS seminars also presented their latest productions and developments: the Taiwanese production house Kuangchi Program Service, represented by Fr. Jerry Martinson; the Hong Kong Diocesan Audiovisual Centre, represented by Simon Au; Maryknoll Society (USA), represented by Larry Rich; the online Catholic productions catalogue CRTN (Catolic Radio and Television Network), represented by Mark Riedemann; the Argentinian producer Buena Nueva Comunicación, represented by Leandro Lanzotti; the multimedia information site H2Onews, represented by Silvia Costantini; SIPCATV, a distribution company from Argentina, represented by Leandro Lanzotti; the Czech TV channel TV Noe, represented by Fr. Marcel Puvak; the ecumenical Russian production and distribution house Blagovest Media, represented by Nick Goryachkin; the Brazilian channel TV Século 21, represented by P. Eduardo Dougherty; the Argentinian producers Anunciar TV, represented by Javier Luna, and Professio, represented by Mariano Zuqui; and also from Argentina, Canal 21 represented by Germán Soriano.
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The SIGNIS TV Desk presented SIGNIS initiatives in the field of television, such as the Plural+ Award, the young Video Journalists project and the Catholictv website.
A “market” session allowed the participants to concentrate on specific projects and collaboration. It resulted, for example, in a cooperation deal between the four Central American channels: Canal 48 from Honduras, Canal Jesús TV from Guatemala, FETV Canal 5 from Panama and TeleFides from Costa Rica.
Following the results of the survey published at the beginning of this year, SIGNIS invited Mat Tombers from Odyssey Networks to give a keynote address on “Technology and Tomorrow: Implications for Catholic Producers”. The US expert analyzed the impact of mobile media on the market of communication and the implications for evangelization through media.
Another part of the seminar was devoted to a common project between Catholic producers, the Catholic Program Bank. The CPB aims to be an online platform to share, stream, download or sell Catholic programs. The CPB report, written by Robert Molhant, was presented on the first day by Ricardo Yáñez, P. Eduardo Dougherty and Silvia Costantini, the instigators of the project which fueled discussions among the producers throughout the seminar. At the end of the seminar, the participants concluded that the project was technically feasible, but that they were not ebough information available about its business plan. They appointed a commission composed of Silvia Costantini (H2Onews), P. Eduardo Dougherty (TV Século 21), Leandro Lanzotti (BNC–SIPCATV), Mariano Zuqui (Professio), Javier Luna (Anunciar TV), Carlos Garde (Rome Reports) and Ricardo Yáñez (SIGNIS TV Desk), which will report at the next seminar.
This 11th SIGNIS TV Producers Seminar is set to take place from 24 to 27 June 2012 in La Rochelle, France, in the framework of the documentary market Sunny Side of the Doc.
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