Spike Lee Visits FUNGLODE and Meets with its President, Leonel Fernández

The renowned filmmaker was accompanied by the Director of the  Festival de Cine Global Dominicano, Omar de la Cruz; the head of the National Film Office, Ellis Pérez; Laila Petrone, production assistant on Spike Lee’s recent documentary Bad 25, as well as Jan Gabriel Rodriguez and Celines Toribio, who organized the visit.

Spike Lee visited the Santo Domingo headquarters of the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) as part of his recent stay to the Dominican Republic. He met there with former Dominican President and current FUNGLODE President, Dr. Leonel Fernández. 

The renowned American film director was in the DR to participate in a colloquium at Ravelo Hall in the National Theater, as part of the International Book Fair of Santo Domingo 2013. The activity, on Tuesday April 30, was sponsored by the Festival de Cine Global Dominicano, an initiative of FUNGLODE, now in its 7^th year, as of this coming November.

Following the Book Fair colloquium, Lee visited FUNGLODE where he met with President Fernández, Omar de la Cruz, and Ellis Pérez. Lee shared his vision about film and his views on what steps the Dominican Republic should take to achieve better results and benefit from the momentum of the Film Law, enacted under recent administration of President Fernández.

Lee expressed his willingness to collaborate in the development of the local Dominican film industry and said he would like to participate in the upcoming Dominican Global Film Festival in November, 2013. “If I am not working on a film, I will come to the Festival,” he promised.

Spike Lee stressed that it is “essential to have a good film school that is capable of training people for film productions if you really want to develop this discipline here in the country,” according to a press release from the Ministry of Culture.

In his opinion, the Dominican Republic should not make more foreign films because there are not enough sufficiently trained personnel here. “To help Dominicans, you need a film school that will become part of the culture, that is free of charge and backed by the government,” said Lee in a meeting with Culture Minister José Antonio Rodríguez and Ellis Pérez of the National Film Office.

“It is less profitable to make films here if I have to bring the whole crew from another country,” he noted. He said it was a pity that there is not a well-know actor or producer here in the country the way there is in other disciplines, like sports or music.

See Video Spike Lee at Dominican Republic