Changing Latin America through Education and Filmmaking
Help Latin American youth study filmmaking and have massive impact in their societies.
An innovative non-profit organization that helps young artists reach integral success and impact their communities. We achieve this by giving them free training in leadership, self growth and filmmaking.
The main active program inside the ALCC is our “Artistas Latinos Film School”
Artistas Latinos Online Film School
An online film school with 15 diferent courses that cover all the areas of a film production.
How the school was born.
In 2016 we made a feature length film that became the most watched movie in the history of our coutry, Bolivia. That propelled us to relocate permanently to the USA. In 2020, people in Latin America had long periods of confinement due to COVID 19. Thus, we decided to give free master classes, through ZOOM, on the subjects of personal development and film production, subjects that we had a long track record of having worked on. It was then that several universities asked us to hold sessions for their social communication students and for their students to be able to interact with us. This sparked in us the idea of creating an online Film University/School that would cover all the areas of a film production but that also integrated personal development and leadership.
As a family, we are well aware that people nowadays do not have the time or money to attend expensive universities that are located far away from their city or country. Also, most film schools teach a sort of filmmaking that does not reach millions of people, or create an industry, but rather stays mostly within small circles of film connoisseurs. Our “Artistas Latinos Film School” (Escuela de Cine Artistas Latinos) teaches people a more commercial type of filmmaking, and lets people study from home anytime they want, at their own pace. Plus, they can start working immediately, get income and begin the creation of an industry within their communities.
Courses in the school:
Course 01 – FUNDAMENTALS AND KEY CONCEPTS (6 sections – 86 classes)
Course 02 – PRODUCTION (12 sections y 73 classes)
Course 03 – SCREENWRITING (4 sections y 32 classes)
Course 04 – DIRECTING (16 sections y 61 classes)
Course 05 – ASSISTANT DIRECTOR (1 sections y 7 classes)
Course 06 – ACTING (4 sections y 6 classes)
Course 07 – CASTING DIRECTOR (2 sections y 3 classes)
Course 08 – CINEMATOGRAPHY (14 sections y 54 classes)
Course 09 – CONTINUITY/SCRIPT SUPERVISION (2 sections y 3 classes)
Course 10 – ART (4 sections y 9 classes)
Course 11 – PRODUCTION SOUND (5 sections y 9 classes)
Course 12 – VIDEO POSTPRODUCTION (8 sections y 19 classes)
Course 13 – AUDIO POSTPRODUCTION (11 sections y 28 classes)
Course 14 – FILM HISTORY (3 Classes)
Classes:
In our first stage as a school, we managed to produce more than 100 classes, but our goal is to produce the 500+ classes needed to cover all areas of film production.
The online platform we use is “Teacheable,” which has an extraordinary system of organization so people can easily access their classes and courses.
Scholarships:
Our Artistas Latinos Cultural Center is concentrated on providing scholarships for low-income students, minority groups, talented leaders, etc. who want to immerse themselves in film production or any area of the filmmaking process.
For more details visit our page: https://escueladecine.artistaslatinos.com
Help us provide full scholarships for Latin American youth that want to study in our online film school
ABOUT US
The ARTISTAS LATINOS CULTURAL CENTER Inc., is organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes in accordance with Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States of America.
VISION
A world where artists have financial stability, sustainable artistic success, and are effective leaders in a modern world.
MISSION
To help artists reach integral success:
More specifically, the ARTISTAS LATINOS CULTURAL CENTER Inc. is dedicated to promoting the creation and development of strong and self-sustaining artistic and cultural industries, by providing educational programs, empowerment tools, venues, festivals, and products, for artists, supporters, financiers, audiences and people in general. It is also dedicated to helping artists and aspiring artists in the USA and Latin America, in developing countries and worldwide, make their projects viable, sustainable and widespread.
A BRIEF SUMMARY
Our family, the Benavides, is comprised of two generations of artists. We are thankful and humbled that our art, has achieved much success in Bolivia and in Latin America. At the moment we are all working professionals that have important achievements in the music arena as well as in filmmaking. To learn more about our film production company and our corporate area, click here.
Besides working in the artistic arena, as a family, we have been helping socially for over 25 years. In 1998 we created our first non-profit organization, the “SIEMBRA Foundation” in order to help impoverished families through the creation of microenterprises in arts and crafts.
For 2 decades we worked through our SIEMBRA FOUNDATION, and years later, in 2015 we created the CENTRO CULTURAL CINEMATOGRAFICO, a non-profit social responsibility arm of our for-profit corporation ARTISTAS LATINOS Ltda., located in La Paz Bolivia. Through this initiative, we touched over 2,000 people with teachings, seminars and workshops in the arts, production and self-development. After four years of successfully serving the community through non-profit work, our family moved to the United States, and incorporated the ARTISTAS LATINOS CULTURAL CENTER Inc., as a charitable non-profit organization in Miami, Florida, on September of 2019. We also created the two main programs within our Cultural Center: the “Artistas Latinos Online Film School”, and “Metamorphosis,” a personal development program with teachings, workshops and coaching on leadership, transformation and change in mentality.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
YECID BENAVIDES ALIAGA
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
GIANCARLA LOPEZ
TRUSTEE
MARCO ANTONIO OLEA
TRUSTEE
PAOLA MULLER
TRUSTEE
JORGE PEREZ CUETO
TRUSTEE
SUSANA PRUDENCIO
TRUSTEE
OFFICERS
YECID BENAVIDES
PRESIDENT
VIKTORIIA MERKULOVA
EVENT MANAGER
YECID BENAVIDES JR.
TREASURER-CFO
JOHANAN BENAVIDES
EDUCATION OFFICER
Thousands of people in Latin America as well as Hispanics in the USA are deprived of studying filmmaking, mainly due to the prohibitive cost of doing so and the fact they have no access to high end film universities. Help them now get into our online film school by donating for our scholarship fund.
OUR 24 YEARS OF WORK
1998 - 2016
In 1998, our founder Yecid Benavides Senior, with the help of the family, establishes the SIEMBRA FOUNDATION.
For more than 15 years, we worked with low income families, home industries, reconciliation events, and cinematography. Our efforts have been consistently focused on promoting development and peace. Bolivia and Latin America have always experienced violence and social upheaval, but these have increased alarmingly in recent years. And, since development and progress can only take place in the context of peace, we have turned our attention to address this pressing issue. The SIEMBRA Foundation has taken on the challenge to invest time, resources and energy in combating racism and violence in our country and beyond its borders. As conflict grew all around us, we made it our goal to sow unity and reconciliation with the confidence that it will produce a harvest of peace.
2000
For 5 years our family, through the SIEMBRA FOUNDATION, supported several impoverished families. We firmly believe in helping families as opposed to individuals because this creates a culture that is more likely to withstand the test of time, and it has an impact that grows exponentially through the generations of that family. So, we began by training members of the families in the production of arts and crafts. Then, we created micro-business for each family so they can sell their products and have an income to support themselves. But we didn’t stop there. We always believed that it is not enough to “teach people how to fish,” rather it is even more productive to go one step further and teach them how to sell their “fish.” We encouraged them to sell at a fair price and to create a sustainable family economy and industry.
2002
CHARACTER – PHILOSOPHY – CULTURE
Our Siembra Foundation developed this advanced leadership training project so that every individual can learn how to have a positive impact on their environment and their nation, through character building, transparency, ethics and high values.
Phronesis' Vision
Our Vision with the Phronesis program was to allow every human being to have a clear understanding of the values that form the basis for the development of nations and to be able to put these values into practice, thus transforming nations and changing people’s mentailty. All of this yields a better world where we live in unity, peace and harmony.
Ropes Course Training
The SIEMBRA FUNDATION developed yet another program based on strategies and immersive experiences and dynamics such “High Ropes Courses,” “Floor Dynamics,” “Low Ropes´ Courses” and “Strategy Adventures”, much in the vein of the Harvard School of Business’ Leadership Program. By placing individuals in artificial high-pressure, high stress and/or high-risk dynamics, we were able to extract life changing teachings that would be imprinted in the students’ minds and that would change their outlook on life.
Kentron's Vision
To train new leaders that have renewed minds through the transformation of their understanding, and that can develop skills such as: abstract thinking, capacity to formulate strategies, effective problem-solving, effective in decision-making, and that they may have the ability to take great risks and work as a team to affect nations carrying the outstanding character traits necessary to create lasting change in society.
2004
CINEGLIDE
Film Camera Stabilizer
The Siembra Fundation supported the creation of the film camera stabilizer named Cineglide. We created a micro-enterprise that supported the Terceros family in the city of Santa Cruz and that was dedicated to the production of this particular filmmaking equipment.
2006
RECONCILIATION
Forgiveness Event
On March 31, 2006, a great historical event was held in the city of Potosi in which representatives of the Qhechua people, Afro-Bolivians, authorities from Spain and Bolivia corrected past offenses and shook hands in a meeting of forgiveness and reconciliation
POTOSI – BOLIVIA
Reconciliation 2006 was an event to promote reconciliation between the Spanish descendants of the conquistadors and the Quechua native people of Bolivia
The Siembra Fundation organized the 2006 Reconciliation event in the city of Potosí, an event in which representatives of Spain and the Catholic Church met with the Quechua people and Afro-Bolivians at the famous centuries-old Coin Mint “Casa de la Moneda,” in order to shake hands in an official act of forgiveness. A commemorative plaque was officially set in the main square of the city of Potosi as a reminder of this historic moment.
The Fundation also supported the film production and editing of the “Reconiciliacion 2006” documentary.
2016 - 2018
In 2016, our Family’s film production company in Bolivia, Artistas Latinos Ltda., created the Cinematographic Cultural Center (CCC) in order to promote the development of the film industry and culture in Bolivia.
Our Cinematographic Cultural Center was intensely active and helped thousands of people in having a deeper understanding of art and finance, as well as the importance of leadership and self-development in art.
Cinematographic Cultural Center - LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
Centro Cultural Artistas Latinos - La Paz Bolivia
In 2018, we decided to change the name of the center to encompass a greater number of people and transcend the borders of Bolivia. The vision expanded towards all Latin American countries, and our plans for establishing the Foundation in the USA begin taking shape.
The Centro Cultural Artistas Latinos in Bolivia impacted the community by uniting artists, giving them artistic training, leadership training, opening doors for them, and leading them to focus their talents and abilities.
2019 - PRESENT
ARTISTAS LATINOS CULTURLA CENTER - FLORIDA, USA
In 2018, after having made the most watched movie in the history of our country, our family decided to take the strategic step of migrating to Florida, USA. Our goal is to reach the broad Latino and Hispanic community with our vision of a world where artists have financial stability, sustainable artistic success, and are effective leaders in a modern world.
Thusands of young people that want to impact their community through filmmaking, are deprived of a good education due to the lack of film schools or their high cost.