Creators aim for the world at US ‘telenovela’ summit

MIAMI—Creators of telenovelas — the dramatic Latin American incarnation of soap operas — from 22 countries gathered this week in Miami to champion their genre as “more alive than ever” as they aim for new markets in Asia, eastern Europe and even Afghanistan.

Between Wednesday and Friday some 300 directors, screenwriters and producers gathered for the ninth annual World Summit of the Telenovela and Fiction Series to discuss the future and meet their peers from around the world.

“At the third summit, six years ago, the main topic of conversation was the imminent death of the soap opera, because it was said the format didn’t fit with what was needed in today’s television,” writer Bethel Flores, who works for multiple number of Latin American soaps, told AFP.

“But it has expanded, and the revitalized version of the classic soap opera is more alive than ever,” she added.

New markets have emerged in recent years for Latin American-style telenovelas, from China and Eastern Europe to Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.

Part of the summit included forums to develop story strategies, arrange the buying and selling of content, and discussing ways to target different audiences.

Chilean writer and soap opera creator Pablo Illanes praised the forum as opportunity to share ideas with colleagues and peers from around the world.

“Unfortunately,” she told AFP, “in Chile there is a certain contempt for the soap opera genre.

“Even among those who work on the shows, some actors and writers see it as an inferior genre, which has always seemed terrible to me,” said Illanes, creator of the show “Where is Elisa?” — the format for which has been sold in Italy, the Philippines, Indonesia, France, Turkey and the United States.