{"id":3312,"date":"2021-12-23T00:59:42","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T23:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/?p=3312"},"modified":"2022-03-17T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T14:00:06","slug":"abner-benaim-we-are-a-country-of-immigrants-and-thats-the-beauty-of-panama-promote-this-is-what-panamanians-need-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/2021\/12\/23\/abner-benaim-we-are-a-country-of-immigrants-and-thats-the-beauty-of-panama-promote-this-is-what-panamanians-need-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Abner Benaim: “We are a country of immigrants, and that’s the beauty of Panama, promote this, is what Panamanians need to do”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abner Benaim<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our special Guest is the most important Panamanian filmmaker in the country, with such a great passion for the seventh art that after studying International Relations and Economics in the United States and working for several years in commerce, decides to study Film Direction and Cinematography in Israel. In his filmography he has to his credit one of the Panamanian films that broke Box Office in Panama: \u201cChance\u201d, as well as two documentaries of great importance for our country and that had a great international resonance: \u201cInvasion\u201d and \u201cMy Name is Not Ruben Blades\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His multiple works in productions of international\nscope in countries such as the United States and Israel have been key to\ndeveloping his personal way of telling stories, and which today translates into\nhis latest production \u201cPlaza Catedral.\u201d In this interview Abner Benaim talks to\nus on his perspective of Panama, and issues that afflict our tourism industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you feel your films have shown abroad?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUsually the people who watch my movies abroad tell me\nthat it made them want to visit Panama, that they got know the country a little\nmore and liked what they saw especially from the people of Panama, which breaks\na lot of stereotypes and preconceptions they had about our country. People want\nto see a little more in depth places in Panama and learn more about our\nstories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do you feel that our culture of mixing with other\nnationalities can help us take the best from abroad and enhance the positive of\nwhat is ours?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have always thought that in the mix there is a lot\nof strength, there is beauty, I mean racial, ethnic, cultural diversity,\nwhatever you want. I believe that the more we are open to other cultures, the\nmore we learn, the more we project ourselves and that there is nothing that can\ntake away our identity, origin and fight against xenophobia and the type of\nthinking that seeks to protect Panama from other cultures. Because if we think\nabout it, the only people who are really from here are the indigenous people,\nthe rest of us arrived as immigrants at some point either five hundred years\nago, a hundred or twenty years ago. We are a country of immigrants and that is\nthe beauty of the country and I do believe that enhancing that beauty is\nsomething that everyone here has to do as Panamanians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collective memory has reduced the invasion of\nPanama to just one event where it is only remembered every December 20. What\ncan be done with this subject matter in our country to reinforce our history\nand tourist experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the invasion, I think they are making\nefforts, it has been included in the collective memory in a broader way. Some\ntime ago I did not like that only few remembered this part of history as theirs\nand others saw it as a subject matter to which they not felt related to. Today\nthe invasion is seen as an event that happened to all of Panama and that must\nbe commemorated. The way to reinforce this history is at schools and homes, and\nof course, through\nliterature, cinema, theater, all the arts that help keep our memory. At the\ninstitutional level, everything that has to do with schools and commemorative\nevents and I think that something very important that has not yet happened and\nthat it would be essential to maintain that memory is to be able to have an\nexact number of how many deaths there were , identify their names and close that\nchapter, in order to erase doubts and put names to anonymous people that were\ninvolved in what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In other countries, even negative events that\nhappened in their history is taken as an advantage to raise awareness in\nsociety and to created as a tourist attraction. Why Panama has not achieved neither\nof the two and what do you feel can be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that things have been done in Panama, what\nhappens is that there is a tendency to hide anything negative and not to\nassimilate it or name it as part of our history. I always had the idea, for\nexample, that Noriega’s house could have been perfectly converted into a museum\nand that many other things such as the “bunkers” at United States former\nmilitary bases. Much can still be done for tourism, we still have ideas from\npirates to dictatorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I do not think\nthat one should sell the negative things as if it were one classic attraction in\na Disneyland-style tourism. These issues must be treated with respect and dignity\nthrough museums and make it part of our identity. However, I believe that we\nalso have enough positive things from nature to our history of relative peace,\nthere are many things that can be exalted in this country and that is done, we\nsimply need to do more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaza Catedral is the first Panamanian film to\nopen the Panama Film Festival. What message do you want Plaza Catedral to leave\nin the collective memory?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, is an honor and pride that Plaza Catedral is the first film to open the Panama Film Festival. I do not want to say a single message or speak in behalf of the film, I believe that each person when watches the film will have its own personal message. What we want is for the film to go as far as possible and we have in particular a message that comes perhaps from inside and outside that is in rejection of youth violence, based on what happened to our actor Fernando Javier de Casta who was murdered . That has become part of the message of the film’s campaign to take advantage of the media coverage to say that we have to open our eyes, that we are part of a single society and that we cannot blame young people for the conditions in which they are born and grow up; and the result of having a youth surrounded by so much violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abner Benaim Our special Guest is the most important Panamanian filmmaker in the country, with such a great passion for the seventh art that after studying International Relations and Economics in the United States and working for several years in commerce, decides to study Film Direction and Cinematography in Israel. In his filmography he has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3524,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions\/3524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}