Next month's Locarno International Film Festival hasforged a new collaboration with the Buenos Aires Lab (BAL), theLatin American co-production market for independent cinema within the frameworkof the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival and TyPA (Teoria y Practica delas Artes), to allow selected filmmakers and producers from Latin America tomeet potential new partners at the Swiss festival.

Commenting on the 'BAL GoesInternational' initiative, Lab coordinators Violeta Bava and Ilse Hughanexplained that they 'couldn't have thought of a better partner thanLocarno, a festival that in recent years has been following and promotingindependent film production from Latin America in general, and from Argentinain particular.'

Locarno will be presenting six projects from the 35pitched at the Buenos Aires Lab last April, ranging from the animateddocumentary Born Under Fire to AdrianBiniez's romantic comedy/drama Gigante.

The six films selected are:

A Week Alone(Una Semana Solos), dir: Celina Murga, prod co: Tresmilmundos(Argentina)

Blood Appears(La Sangre Brota), dir: Pablo Fendrik, prod co: Bambu Cine (Argentina)

Born Under Fire(Nacidos Bajo Fuego), dir: Jairo Eduardo Carrillo, prod co:La Maquina Producciones (Colombia)

Gigante, dir:Adrian Biniez, prod co: Control Z Films (Uruguay)

La Rabia, dir:Albertina Carri, prod co: Matanza Cine (Argentina)

Summertime(Verano), dir: Jose Luis Torres Leiva, prod co: Parox (Chile)

In 2003, the Locarno festival staged the ArgentinosJuniors showcase of 11 projects, including Rodrigo Moreno's El Custodio, Luis Ortega's Monobloc, Santiago Loza's 4 Women, Barefoot, and Veronica Chen's Agua- produced by Bambu Cine - which is having its international premiere in theOfficial Competition this year.

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