Fundraiser for El Pinero

Sarasota, Fla. - Bradenton filmmaker Robert Potter and Cuban director Meilín Quilez Durañona will host a fundraiser for their short film El Pinero on Saturday, October 10, from 12 to 1 p.m. at Burns Court Cinema, 506 Burns Lane, Sarasota.

El Pinero is a bilingual English and Spanish independent short film to be shot on location on Cuba's Isla de la Juventud, formerly the Isle of Pines. It follows Cole Smith, an American searching for the grave of the grandfather he never knew. In the early 1900s, American settlers built a community on the island that reached roughly 2,000 people at its peak. The 1925 Hay-Quesada Treaty confirmed Cuban sovereignty.

Potter, a Ringling College of Art and Design graduate, is a Film Lab Instructor at State College of Florida. Quilez Durañona, born and raised on Isla de la Juventud, is a graduate of the Low-Budget Filmmaking Workshop at EICTV in Cuba. It is their second film together, after Last Thread. Filming is planned for December.

About El Pinero: El Pinero is a US-Cuba co-production and a fiscally sponsored project of From the Heart Productions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, making donations tax-deductible. Learn more at elpinerofilm.com and follow @cubaxfilm.