Updates from Fé De Agua

In late December last year, there was a meeting of a group of passionate and creative people in Tamarindo. They had gathered excitedly to discuss an idea formulated by Costa Rican surf guide author Johnny Yonkers and photographer Sergio Pucci. The idea was a story about the passage in life of a young Guanacastecan
It has been less than seven months since that meeting where “Fé De Agua” was born and so much has happened. A dream-laden idea was launched with an enthusiasm that took hold of the whole community.

Since that day a movie has almost been made. Guana Productions raised $5000 in cash from individuals and businesses, received technical, post production and equipment support from DART S.A of San Jose valued at over $10,000 and had over 100 people through the set during an intense five day shoot. The project has attracted both talented first timers and seasoned professionals, all of whom, worked without pay. Those included New York based award winning director Alrick Brown, Photographer Sergio Pucci, San Jose based film industry professional Maria Coronas and a whole host of others. In front of the camera it was a different story. None of the four key actors had any significant experience acting. Despite this lack of experience, we were fortunate to have an extremely experienced acting coach in the shape of Paul Belanger whose 20 years theater experience extracted convincing performances from the principles. All four are real Ticos, with real lives and real stories. Three are Guanacastecans.

In parallel to this project we also launched the Fé De Agua Surf Scholarship. This will be a fund to assist young Guanacaste surfers who show talent but are restrained by financial circumstances. This project will begin at the end of 2009 and will raise money both from Fe De Agua contributions and independent fund raising. We are also contributing to Carlos Daniel, our young lead actors education. Carlos comes from a challenging background.

Our publicity campaign has yielded features in many of the regions major publications including The Tico Times, The Tamarindo News, Utopia, La Nacion, Zona Next The Howler, Surfzine, Surfos and CATURGUA’s publication Guanacaste. We also had Teletica 7’s magazine show En Vivo, air an eight minute segment on prime time television.
It seems we are asked on a daily basis when everyone can see the movie. Once the movie is completed, it will premier in Tamarindo, then be submitted into the Costa Rican International Film Festival then submitted to a schedule of international film festivals through 2010, providing publicity and exposure for Guanacaste and for Costa Rica .

Right now we have what is known as a rough cut, which is a loosely edited version of the film that lasts around 20 minutes. This currently has basic sound and no music. This is the embryo.

There is now only one piece of filming that we have to get that will bind the project. The surf footage, was shot this week at witches rock, you can see photos below. Next we will be attending the ISA World Surfing Games in Hermosa both to publicize the project and to film surf crowd footage for usage in our movie. We plan to have a trailer to show at that time. With that being the final piece to be filmed, the final cut will be created after which the score (music) is added and then finally, all the graphics, credits and subtitles (the film will be subtitled in both in English and Spanish where ever applicable making it truly bilingual).

Right now we are short of funds to complete this project. We will need around $1000 to complete filming and get us into the final editing process and a further $2000 to cover paying people to do the final touches such as soundtrack and graphics and get us to the premier!

Please contact us for more details if you are interested in getting involved in order us to help finish our project and get it onto the screen where it belongs. We have many sponsor fulfillment options, especially as our premier draws closer.

For more information, please contact

Thornton Cohen Executive Producer twj@nomadpics.com
Natasha Pachano Assistant Director Natashapachano@me.com

If you wish to donate to our project, you can do so by depositing to our Banco Nacional account.

Acc # 1-200-02-145-004193-0
Acc Name 3-101-528291