The team behind the film Simón responded to the National Autonomous Centre for Cinematography (CNAC)This week, the film’s producers shared a statement on their social media addressed to CNAC after the entity demanded that they make a public statement following the use of a scene from the film to denounce the Venezuelan situation.
On Monday, The team of the film directed by Diego Vicentini reported that they received by mail an “Official Letter 086” sent by the presidency of the CNAC and signed by Carlos Azpúrua Guerra, in which the governing body of national cinema complains about the use of a fragment of the film by Colombian senator María Fernanda Cabal on their social media in a petition addressed to President Gustavo Petro. They demanded that they make a public statement to confirm whether or not they authorized the use of the images.
“An anonymous video has been released by television stations and social networks worldwide in violation of the Law against hatred, for peaceful coexistence and tolerance, in which Images from the feature film Simón, produced and directed by you, are included, which aims to be shown as if they were reality. (…) Given that up to now you have not claimed or protested against the incorporation of these terrifying images from the fictional film in the aforementioned video, we urge you to expressly declare, within a period of no more than three business days from this date, whether or not you authorized this act,” says the letter sent by the CNAC to Simón’s team.
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/GZ4USKNQEBFQPAA3PW23EH4MCE.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "Andrés Hurtado: Jossety and Génnesis Hurtado make controversial publications amid their father’s arrest")
:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/XGUYEI3AKJAPRHXF4SOAD5CQMM.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "George Clooney and Brad Pitt vow to “take care of” Matt Damon in a parody of their new film")
The national film governing body also required them to publish their statement on social media and in newspapers. The National and El Universal, which are considered to have the largest national circulation, although since the end of 2018 there has been no longer a printed edition of El Nacional due to difficulties in purchasing paper and the subsequent expropriation of the newspaper’s headquarters in Los Ruices, in 2021, by Diosdado Cabello.
“If they had not authorized it, it would be a vulgar violation of their copyright. But If so, they would be exposed to prosecution by the competent judicial authority. for alleged criminal participation or complicity,” says the CNAC document, which was published on Monday on its social networks, but which it decided to delete shortly after.
What did Simon’s team respond?
On Tuesday, Simon’s team responded to the CNAC’s letter through a statement published on their social networksin which -in addition to explaining the content of the communication received- They indicated that they did not authorize the use of the images from the film.
Besides, The statement from Simón’s team clarifies that although the film does include images from real life, the scenes of torture spread on social media are not real, but are based on recent testimonies from former political prisoners..
“Most of the images in the film are not real-life recordings, as a documentary might be, although, to be more precise with our statements, we would like to note that there are in fact real-life images in the film. But specifically the images in the fragment mentioned in this Official Letter 086, where ‘human bodies hanging suffering cruel torture’ are shown, are not real-life recordings. These ‘terrifying images’ and ‘cruel tortures’, as the CNAC presidency describes them, They are fictional artistic and cinematographic representations based on the real testimonies of various former Venezuelan political prisoners of recent years.“, says the film’s team.
The producers of the film They also took the opportunity to mention that this is the first time that the CNAC has referred to Simón publicly.despite the fact that the film was the winner of the 2023 Venezuelan Film Festival, since that year the governing body did not publish on its social networks, as it did in 2022, the list of winning films.
“They did not mention Simón when she won the Venezuelan Film Festival, nor when she was nominated for the Goya Awards, nor for the Platino Awards, nor when she managed to break the box office record of recent years in Venezuelan cinema, nor when Netflix acquired the film (…) Perhaps this occasion will serve for the CNAC to explain the notable absence of mention of Simón on its social networks. over more than a year of events that we consider relevant to our industry and our national film community,” the statement concludes.
Diego Vicentini’s film follows the story of Simon, a student leader fleeing persecution by the regime after participating in the 2017 protests.
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