Former President Fernández Promotes the Development of Dominican Cinema in the United States

This past Monday, the former President of the Dominican Republic and honorary President of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD), and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), Dr. Leonel Fernández, visited the Maurice Kanbar Film and Television Institute of the Tisch School of Arts at New York University, one of the most prestigious schools of cinema.

Fernández”s visit to the famous academic institution, which included a
meeting with its Director, John Tintori, is part of a series of contacts that the former Dominican Head of State is carrying out with universities and other educational centers in the United States with which GFDD and FUNGLODE to develop joint initiatives that will benefit Dominican youth.

The working meeting of the former President with executives of the Maurice Kanbar Film and Television Institute also aimed to contribute to the development of the Dominican audiovisual industry. It is worth noting that the film law of the Dominican Republic was an initiative that was promoted under Fernández’s government administration.

As part of the meeting, the Director of the Maurice
Kanbar Film and Television Institute committed himself to submitting a formal proposal to FUNGLODE, so that they may sign an official inter-agency cooperation agreement in the framework of the next Dominican Global Film Festival.

Fernández said that Tintori was also favorable to the Dominican Republic, as part of the Caribbean and Latin America, to carry out training programs in script, acting, camera, lighting, and other related areas. In addition, he supported education
in the areas of film theory, production and everything else that has to do with the development of the seventh art.

About the Institute
The Maurice Kanbar Film and Television Institute is a unit of the Art School at New York University, institution that was founded in 1965 to provide rigorous training in the fields of theater and film.

With 265 faculty members and 3,163 enrolled students, the
aforementioned unit is one of the 15 that make up New York University. It is an academic center aimed at artists, art students and creative entrepreneurs.

The academic institution has 5 departments and 17 programs and offers bachelor’s, master”s, master”s and doctoral degrees in the fields of arts and fine arts. In addition, it offers a selection of classes for students that are enrolled at New York University.

Apart from the Maurice Kanbar
Film and Television Institute, the other five departments in the School are: the Performing Arts Institute, the Skirball Center for New Media, the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and the Department of Art and Public Policy.

The Film Department
The Department of Film and Television offers a degree program and a graduate program, both in the areas of film and television, which train students in film narration. The
center”s mission is to educate students in the art, craft and technology of film, television, animation and sound production.

The program, which takes place in New York and Singapore, provides intensive practical production experience with broad exposure to the liberal arts.

It is an intensive three-year conservatory that trains the students in the art of film narration. It focuses on assisting filmmakers in developing a narrative voice and on the
technical virtuosity of expressing such voice.