[Author]by the El Reportero’s news services[/Author]
The family of late singer Jenni Rivera is marking what would have been her 45th birthday with the release of a second disc documenting the Diva de la Banda’s final concert.
“I gave myself the job of promoting my sister’s new production, on which I worked hundreds of hours,” Juan Rivera said in an interview with Efe coinciding with Tuesday’s release of 1969 – Siempre, En Vivo Desde Monterrey Parte 2.
Accompanied by a DVD, the disc includes additional songs from the Dec. 9, 2012, performance in the northern Mexican city.
Rivera, who was born July 2, 1969, died in a plane crash a few hours after the concert.
“It was not a recording my sister planned. To tell the truth, it was accidentally recorded by one of the (sound) engineers,” Juan Rivera said.
When the engineer informed the family he had recorded the show, Juan listened to the recording and polled the singer’s children and other family members to determine whether the recording was “a treasure to be guarded or shared,” he recounted.
“The whole family decided that Jenny would have wanted to share it,” Juan Rivera said.
Part Three of the Monterrey concert is tentatively set for release next year, he said.
The family is also at work on a screenplay for a film about the star’s life and has already talked to several directors.
“Jenni had planned to make her own movie and she left us lots of ideas,” Juan Rivera told Efe. “But after what happened, the story is a little different.”
Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic to work together to boost film industry in region
Organizers of the San Juan International Film Festival will hold in October its first forum on Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic coproductions as a step toward boosting the moviemaking potential of these two Caribbean neighbors.
Their idea is to “promote the development of the film industry in both countries and in that way help expand the regional market,” the executive director of the long-running Puerto Rican festival, Jose Artemio Torres, told Efe.
“The time has come. For years, the festival has been talking about promoting this movie market to stimulate local industry while increasing production in many parts of the Americas,” Torres said.
The 1st Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic Coproduction Meeting is scheduled for Oct. 23-25 and will be coordinated by Dominican producer Tanya Valette, Torres said.
This first edition of the forum seeks to be a catalyst for promoting film coproductions by Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, creating bridges of communication and collaboration between audiovisual producers and professionals of the two islands, in order to make the most of possible synergies and “to join forces,” Torres said.
Possibilities to be discussed at the forum include creating a virtual network of the various components of the sector, as well as a catalogue of producers, technicians, distributors and exhibitors in both countries.
Ten feature films will be screened at the meeting, five from each of the island nations, to be chosen from a submission of entries starting Tuesday and ending Aug. 15.
