Report from Costa Rica

Back in March 2020, the Costa Rica International Film Festival was the first major local event cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As in many other places over the following weeks, it was just the first of a series of cancellations and postponements that would throw the film and moving image community into disarray. The first response by local artists was, as elsewhere, to share much of their work online for the benefit of an art-hungry audience that saw how little by little most institutions entered a crisis they have not recovered from. In normal times, screenings of new work are somewhat rare in the country, and the local festivals do not prioritize new moving image art.