Just a few days ago, the renowned audiovisual production company BTF Media –which has been nominated for an International Emmy and offers a broad portfolio of successful series, such as El Secreto de Selena, Su Nombre era Dolores and Hasta que te Conocí— announced that it will officially inaugurate its new production office in Santiago, Chile.

The announcement was made through a statement confirming that BTF Media's founding-partners, Francisco Cordero and Ricardo Coeto, have joined forces with the award-winning director, producer and screenwriter Hernán Caffiero in order to carry out this new venture.

Caffiero, who will be in charge of this new office along with Cordero and Coeto, is a director, producer, and screenwriter of films, documentaries, and fiction series. He received an International Emmy in 2018 for his series Una Historia Necesaria, as well as an award for Best Director from the NACCC in New York in 2019 and two awards from Chile’s National Television Council (CNTV) for his new television series, entitled Voces Anonimas and Raza Brava.

“Chile is an increasingly important market within the industry. We are very happy to open a new office in this territory together with Hernán Caffiero, who is one of the most outstanding showrunners in Latin America and who has a vast number of audiovisual projects that will be added to the BTF Media portfolio,” said Ivonne Vela, BTF’s Head of Communications.

The opening of this office in Chile is part of the growth of BTF Media, which already has offices in the United States, Mexico, Argentina and Spain.

CinemaChile spoke to the Chilean director and producer about this big announcement, going into detail on the implications of this agreement. Caffiero assured, “The mere fact that a company such as BTF Media has its eyes on our country says something about the excellent possibilities and capabilities that our field can offer international productions, and at the same time, it gives us a strong signal that there is enough trust to develop and invest in our industry from a universal perspective, with exportable contents and with the possibilities of generating coproductions with other markets.”

When and how did this project come about? What excites you the most about this plan?

This alliance began to take shape at the 2019 Conecta Fiction market in Pamplona, Spain, where we had the opportunity of meeting and getting to know each other. What surprised me the most was the information they dominated regarding all of the Latin American markets and filmmakers, with a vision that was open to find not only new alliances, but also new talents. And I think that this was what attracted them the most about us. Chile has shown itself as a country that has serious and skilled professionals who are at the level of developed countries’ audiovisual industries, and this makes us a goldmine for those who are looking ahead in the search for new stories and new commercial opportunities.

One of the things that excites us the most is to be able to generate series and feature-length films from Chile to the world, not thinking from a local standpoint, but from a universal one. This country has the best professionals; we have first-rate suppliers, the best locations in all of Latin America, and a hunger for bringing ideas to life that exists in few other places.

How, then, would you describe the relevance of forming an alliance with a production company that already has international offices? 

BTF Media is a world-renowned production company that has received Emmy nominations and produced several international hits. Today, the production company is in the middle of working on what promises to be one of Latin America’s most important television series: a series about Diego Armando Maradona. So, opening a window that allows Chilean productions to gain access to regional markets with a broad and transversal business vision turns out to be a tremendous opportunity for us. Not only for those of us who will form part of this production company, but also for the industry in general.

How do you foresee this new form of work (partnership)? How are the creative terms of one series or another defined?

BTF Media is a company that is constantly searching for talent, which means that we will not only develop the projects that we were working on before this agreement, but also, we will work on finding new ideas and projects that will allow us to generate avant-garde and high-impact contents from Chile. I think that one of the main challenges in making a series is safeguarding the project’s identity during each one of the processes. The number of people who participate in the realization of a project from their different subjective takes is so high that the magic lies in organically integrating these visions in order to achieve a new and unique piece. On the other hand, it’s difficult to think of a series with the artistic parameters that a filmmaker might have for a feature-length film. Series strive to generate a feeling of belonging with the audience, perpetuating stories and characters in our collective imagination. Series must be constructed from a creative vision that is more empathetic than personality-centered, since a series cannot be conceived without a platform or a channel, just like mass media cannot be conceived without an audience.

What is your vision of the intersection between activism and the audiovisual field, especially in the current context, since we are going through a complicated period after the social upheaval and the expansion of the Covid-19 pandemic?

To me, audiovisual creations are a reflection of our society and those that form part of it. In this sense, I think that based on what has happened in Chile and throughout the world over these past few months, the number of themes, stories, characters, and ideas has multiplied, and we must be able to transform these into attractive, honest, and universal projects. I think that each country’s identity and the identity of each person who lives in them can generate unique and transversal stories that bring us into different realities, but with representative elements of humankind, which can evoke a close and intimate reality that moves us deeply.

Regarding your latest series, which rely heavily on testimonial elements, to what extent do you believe in and defend the importance of testimony and the way in which you work with historical truths?

Personally, I am a fan of real stories and of using elements from reality in order to build characters or conflicts that evoke moments or situations that represent society. On the other hand, I think that audiovisual creators are also responsible for tackling subject matters that other disciplines of communication do not address because our work endures over time; our work is far from fleeting. We are creators of stories that mark our audiences, stories that change them, sensitize them and move them. At the same time, we are witnesses of our own times, and it is within our power to create genuine portraits of what we are going through. And although subjectivity does not always go hand in hand with truth, I think that honesty and the capability of empathizing with our surroundings when confronting a project can mark the difference between what is plastic and what is profound.

You mentioned the development of Una Historia Necesaria 2. What other projects do you have in mind or already in the works?

Last year, we received two important grants from the National Television Council’s Development Fund, in its historical and fiction categories. Both projects are now in their development stage. Meanwhile, we are beginning to set up meetings with other filmmakers and producers in order to establish connections that may turn into alliances in the future, so as to make new series and feature-length films for television and other platforms. And as I was saying before, we want to contribute to the development of a sector that has a lot of talent but has been insufficiently exploited in the international market.