The Cine Qua Non Lab (CQNL) call for its Argumental Lines Workshop is still open and will continue until February 28. With two modalities per language (Spanish and English), the workshops will be held in April and May, comments Graciela Guerrero, general coordinator of CQNL.
Since its formal establishment in 2010, CQNL has supported independent filmmakers, comments Graciela: “It is a labor of love, it has involved a lot of sacrifices from the board of directors. A filmmakers for filmmakers project was created. It has never been thought of as a business: we needed to create a space that we ourselves need, understanding the situation ”.
The board of directors is made up of its founder, Jesús Pimentel Melo, along with Sarita Khurana, Lucila Moctezuma, Christina Lazaridi and Ladimer Haluke.
Among their activities they have had multiple script revision workshops. In 10 years of activities, there are about 200 attendees to the workshops. Regarding its current call, Graciela highlighted that it is open to the general public: “It is a workshop designed for that moment when there is an idea for a story, but it has not started yet. An image, an anecdote, a possibility as a starting point. At the end of the workshop, they are expected to come to a treatment: tell the story from beginning to end ”.
By having the call open internationally, he recalled Graciela, have received attendees from countries such as China, Spain, Australia, Kenya, the Philippines and Chile: “For us it is wonderful, we try to make our groups diverse, so that the participants enrich themselves.”
About the requirements to apply (which can be consulted at www.cqnl.org), CQNL does not restrict the call to film students or people who are already working in the industry: “You do ask for a brief bio of the person, to understand their interests, where their artistic concerns go. A synopsis of up to three pages maximum of what they want to tell and the motivation to tell this idea and take it to the script format ”.
Good environment for ideas
A characteristic of the graduates of the CQNL workshops is that they continue to receive the support of the organizers. Among the laboratory’s alliances are film festivals and institutions such as Sundance, Tribeca Film Institute, the FICG Guadalajara and ProIm Images Colombia, among others. Among the creators who have had the opportunity to participate in the workshops of CQNL there is Lorena Padilla, a filmmaker from Guadalajara who worked on the script for her debut in the script workshopn: “It has been a project that we have tried to push as much as we can.”
Although this call will have its virtual workshop, due to the pandemic, the workshops are regularly held at its facilities, near the town of Tzintzuntzan (Michoacán). The headquarters of CQNL practically proposes a creative retreat to attendees: “It allows us to remove creators from the everyday noise we have in our lives. We always have the urge to turn to see the cell phone, to check the mail. This place helps us a lot, apart from being very beautiful, and it has isolated connectivity. They are not completely isolated. ” The site borders Lake Pátzcuaro.
JL
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