Jerónimo Labrada has been appointed as new interim Director of the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV). The school is facing a tough financial challenge, and as it was previously announced, it has suspended new admissions for the next academic year. According to press reports, the new director has said that the 40 students who were about to start classes in September will be guaranteed spots at the school for 2014. The measure doesn't has an effect on the students currently enrolled.
Labrada, a Cuban sound engineer and film professor, replaces Guatemalan filmmaker Rafael Rosal Paz, who recently resigned as director of the school, amidst some reports of alleged internal corruption in which three school employees were arrested.
The school was founded in 1986 as a subsidiary of the Foundation of the New Latin American Cinema (FNCL). Its founders were Colombian Nobel-prize winner Gabriel García Marquez, Argentinean filmmaker Fernando Birri, and Cuban filmmaker and critic Julio García Espinosa.
Since its foundation over 800 students from more than 50 countries have graduated from it. Some notable alumni include Peruvian director Diego Vega (October), Venezuelan director Mariana Rondón (Postcards from Leningrad), Cuban director Juan Carlos Cremata (Viva Cuba), Argentinean-born Cuban director Alejandro Brugués (Juan of the Dead), and Dominican director Laura Amelia Guzmán (Jean Gentil). Funding to the school comes from international agencies, regional organizations and government funds from some Latin American countries.
