The renowned Rosario actor Juan Ignacio Canewho rose to fame when he played the manager of the Luis Miguel series, carries out a project “from the heart”: seeks to position Rosario as an audiovisual hub, towards its citizens and the world, with the logistical advantages and creative potential that the city has. He has already started and even met with the mayor of Rosario Pablo Javkin.
“Juanchy” Cane was coming out of a long day of recording at the Club Nacional de Football Stadium in Montevideo (Uruguay), where he is filming exteriors for the second season of Barrabravas. Already sheltered in the hotel, he recounted in dialogue with Rosario3 about this dream that little by little becomes tangible: “It is a beautiful project that I imagined four years ago, based on a shortcoming that I observed in the city. I feel like a Rosarian, and I have to do something with the image we give out: we went from eating cats to being a drug city, according to the media. It makes me very angry that lately on filming they ask me if it is true that in Rosario they shoot you dead. “That hurts and I had to do something.”
To the project, which is in the expansion stage, He named him Par, for the acronym of Polo Audiovisual Rosariobut the name also refers to the idea of “Rosario as a pair of many cities that are headquarters of the audiovisual industry”advancement.
As Par explained, “it started out as a utopia, but I wanted to be closer and contribute something to the city.” And he added about his intentions: “I want to capitalize on my public relations to position Rosario to produce audiovisual content, with its logistical advantages of proximity and creative people, and bring in the personalities that reinforce the city’s brand.”
For now, the concept has several aspects: oiling the city’s service to the world as accessible city of locations; train local technicians and actors “so that when filming production companies do not have to bring teams of people from other cities”; search of private investments in the audiovisual sector; and call on actors and directors recognized in the country to install the city brand outwards. But all that, “in tune with change the perception of the people of Rosario themselves about the film productions that are made in their same citythrough talks, training, and training from school age.”
It happens that for Cane, the first of these various aspects is to generate community, which Rosario residents value local creations, which many times they do not realize exist, so that “little by little it becomes a critical mass that values its local cinema.” Then he specified that “without arrogance”, in his experience of living in other cities such as Buenos Aires, Mexico and Madrid, “Marketing is lacking in Rosario: selling the city and the Rosario has to encounter the potential that local filming has: there are many creative projects, series like Maternidark by Romi Tamburello, or The Wizard by Postiglione. I wonder how many people from Rosario found out about their existence and consume them.”
Regarding how this desire arose, Cane recalled a key moment: “In the middle of the 2020 pandemic, I was at a dinner after filming the Luis Miguel series, and the producers were thinking about not-so-small cities where they could film. I was dying to tell them to come, but for that to happen the conditions have to improve. “So I started scheming.”
Several weeks ago, Juanchy shared the idea with Mayor Pablo Javkin and Secretary of Culture Federico Valentini, and “they were enthusiastic about supporting the proposal,” he stated. He also spoke with the director of Punto Audiovisual Mario Boggino and with the director of the Rosario Latin American Film Festival, Valeria Boggino, who also gave their approval.
This is a proposal from the private sector, although because it is a public policy, it is inevitable that it will have aspects related to the Municipality, since filming in the city implies considering administrative and logistical aspects of filming. Regarding this, it is worth remembering that since 2022 the Rosario Filma program provides some sponsorships and the Puente resource. Although the proposal was also born as a strategy to co-opt national and international production companies to make million-dollar investments and shoot their films in locations in the city, in line with the essence of Par.
In this way, he emphasized: “A set of public policies must go hand in hand. A decision that is key is the advancement of the Cinema law that is sitting in the provincial Legislature and that the audiovisual sector has been demanding for a long time.”
He recalled that in October the Latin American Film Festival arrives again, and highlighted: “This type of event must be promoted well and that great actors and directors come, but above all inward so that the people of Rosario take ownership of their own festival”.
Cane with actor Mauricio Minetti in shots of the film
The mind of power, a political thriller still in pre-production. (Rosario3)
An initiative from Rosarinidad, in balance between the public and the private
Cane’s proposal for a city as an audiovisual hub seeks alliances with the State and also with the private sector so that it bets on local filming, since being A city of filming will involve the generation of work for a wide spectrum of Rosario jobs: dressmakers, set designers, catering, delivery services, private locations, hotels, among other sectors.
It should be noted that since the post-pandemic there have been several film tanks that have been made: Vera by Federico Actis and Romina Tamburello, wind dogs by Hugo Grosso, 1985 by Santiago Miter, The dance begins by Marina Seresesky, and Thirst by Julia Solomonoff. At that time The former Secretary of Culture, Dante Taparelli, was enthusiastic about the idea of “Rosario as cinema verité”but this year the panorama, hand in hand with the Incaa crisis, is already meager again: there are two or three co-productions in the process of filming.
The Par team, which is advancing as an audiovisual production company, is made up of a group of Rosario residents: Lorena Rey (actress, audiovisual producer and teacher), Gonzalo Pereyra (designer), Diego Lorenzini (business administrator) and Manuel Sánchez Luppi (business administrator, advisors), among other people who collaborate in a more satellite way.
Cane highlighted that his goal is to empower the audiovisual sector at the level of other metropolises: “In an accounting career, as soon as you graduate, you balance several jobs until you become good at it. An actor or director has no chance to develop in the city, and ends up being a professor at film schools.”
Then he exemplified: “In Montevideo, where I am now filming, it has been a hub for 20 years, and that means that every time there is a filming, it already has the necessary technical equipment for filming. Instead, To film in Rosario, a film must bring most of its crew because there is no experience here, and to have it, you have to bet on the city and film. That gymnastics is missing.”
But, the initiative goes much further: “In the medium term I want this to be an incubator with Rosario stories to export. And in the long term, if a community is generated and the people of Rosario themselves understand the value of the productions in the city, The idea is to generate crowdfunding of filming with four films per year about the city, and that Rosario residents themselves are the investors. Something similar to the audiovisual productions that Hernán Casciari makes with the community of his magazine Orsai. It is very necessary in the equation that the private sector bank on it.”
Another objective is the formation of “a critical mass in cinema”, and for that, he expressed: “We want to bring cinema to primary and secondary schools. I discovered my calling to act when a producer came to my school and I acted for a short film when I was 16 years old. I went to the Marist school and from there I keep my friends, some of them who are in the Par.”
A first activity was carried out from Par, when Érica Rivas came to present kill yourself love with free admission at the Audiovisual Expressions Center, and at the same time gave a talk for actors.
Looking to the near future, Cane enthusiastically announced: “We are already working on a second activity, and the third will be the screening of short films in an elementary school.”
