“EL Rey del Cha Cha Cha” (King ofthe Cha Cha Cha), a feature-length filmco-produced by Costa Rica, Nicaraguaand Cuba and directed by Costa Ricanfilmmaker Isabel Martínez, won the bestin its length in Central America and Cuba’sfirst video and film competition, inCosta Rica, under the auspices of Cinergía.Seventy-seven competitors enteredand were judged by an international panelfrom Latin American countries and theUnited States.The winning film is the story of PedroJarquín, a popular mythical and polemicalcharacter, and features a cameo byPanamanian singer/songwriter RubénBlades. The first-place prize was $25,000.The second-place prize, $5,000 wasawarded to the film “Aqua Yala: Tierradel Agua” (Aqua Yala: Land of Water),co-produced in Costa Rica and Panama,which inspects the debate over the expansionof the Panama Canal and what todayis understood as “development.”Costa Rica also won two of the four$5,000 prizes for short films with “CostaRica, Sociedad Anónima” (Costa RicaInc.), by Pablo Ortega and “Popul Vuh: ElOcaso de Xibalbá” (Popul Vuh: the Declineof Xibalbá), by Francisco Guerrero.
