See ‘Reefa,’ others at Miami Film fest

There’s a community of filmmakers that is evolving and has put a stake in the ground in Miami — dedicated to staying put rather than leaving South Florida for New York or Los Angeles.

It’s a definite talking point this year surrounding Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival, said Jaie Laplante, executive director and director of programming for the annual event, which will run from March 6 through 15.

“There are changes that have been happening in Miami,” said Laplante, who is in his 10th year as director and is an integral part of this Miami movement.

“[There is a] flourishing of creativity among Miami creators who are working in cinema, the global reach of Miami stories,” he added, emphasizing the attention to such films when “Moonlight” won the Academy Award for “Best Picture” in 2017. “There are some filmmakers in this community who are making organic stories and those from around the world that are recognizing the richness of South Florida stories. This year, too, there are about a dozen Miami-based filmmakers who are in the program that have made stories in other parts of the country.”

Two documentarians and a feature filmmaker, all from Miami, are the working example of Laplante’s statements of a resurgence in the film community — and how the city shapes their points of view from story to screen. Their films are “Reefa,” “When Liberty Burns” and “River City Drumbeat.”

Jessica Kavana Dornbusch’s “Reefa” makes its world premiere at this year’s festival. The made-in Miami, featurelength film is based on the 2013 police Taser death in Miami Beach of 18-year-old graffiti artist Israel “Reefa” Hernandez.

Dornbusch grew up in Miami, graduated from North Miami Beach Senior High, left for Boston University’s film program, worked in New York in the independent film industry and returned to Miami as an assistant director at television station Univision. Now, she concentrates entirely on made-in Miami films. Her first movie, 2006’s “Love and Debate,” originally written for Project Greenlight, was based on her experiences as a high school and college award-winning debater.

“I’m a Miami girl. All of my films have been based here, written for here, and I’ve shot them all here,” Dornbusch said.

Florida’s lack of tax incentives for filmmakers causes some hardships, she said.

The state’s film tax credits launched July 1, 2010, and ended on June 30, 2016. Since then, bills have been introduced in the Florida Legislature, but so far, the incentives haven’t been re-instated.

Dornbusch said she had to stretch a small budget — a $1 million budget is relatively slight for a full-length feature — but the filmmaker insisted she had to create “Reefa” in Miami. “Had we gone to Atlanta or someplace, that money would have gone a longer way with an incentive. But this is a Miami story, and it was important for us to shoot it here,” she said. “The family is here, Reefa lived here, and I wanted to shoot the film on the streets where he used to roam with his friends.”

Going into the making of the film, she knew that the tight-knit film community would step in, she said. “Whatever incentive we didn’t have would be made up in so many ways here, being part of this film community and their help.”

“Reefa” could get a different kind of incentive if it wins in two competitions. It goes up against 11 other feature-length films for a $30,000 cash prize in the festival’s Knight-funded Made in MIA Award competition. The competition is looking for the film that features a “substantial portion of its content (story, setting and actual filming location) in South Florida ... and that most universally demonstrates a common ground of pride, emotion, and faith for the South Florida community.”

Dornbusch’s movie will also compete for the festival’s Knight MARIMBAS Award, an international competition that awards $40,000 to the film that “best exemplifies richness and resonance for cinema’s future.”

“We capture a side of Miami in ‘Reefa’ that is rarely seen on film,” Dornbusch said. “There’s the ‘Moonlight’ side that did an extraordinary job with everything that’s Liberty City and that raw beach side that still exists in Miami”