Hello. I'm new here... I found this site while looking for some information about film schools in the US. I'm korean-american, but I have lived all my life in that third world country, Argentina. I'm 18 years old and I'm in my first year of a film university, "Universidad del Cine" (http://www.ucine.edu.ar) here in Argentina, which consists of 4 small buildings on a small street. It's a nice place, but the film industry kinda sucks here, you know... very few people can PRODUCE their projects. So I was hoping maybe in America things are better (which I really think they are). Plus, I've got family in California an in New York. Well, I've read all the pages in the Film School section of this message board, heh... so know I'm trying to decide what to do but oh well. I might start a topic about this later on.

In a sense you may have it better in Argentina - with a less developed film industry there are more opportunities to advance and change your national cinema. Do you speak Spanish?

Yep. I've lived all my life in Argentina so yes, I speak spanish. You're right about the opportunity to advance through national cinema, but we are so scarce of resources and money... one can barely make a movie.

It's not that different here - most of the money is tied up in the studio budgets, and it's very hard to access, especially from the beginning. Is there some kind of state funding available for films there? Maybe you could do documentaries about local issues. Anyway, you probably have access to more believable non-actors than I do in Florida. There are probably good outdoor locations also.

State funding is available, but it is VERY limited and it's a corrupted system (as everything else in this country). The only problem here is the money issue and the lack of technology. But I'll have to deal with it.

It's only fair for the rest of you guys to get a second opinion....

I'm from Argentina as well and, yes, the money situation kinda sucks, but I've been around long enough to know getting funding (whether state or sponsor) for student films is the exception, never the rule.

I fully disagree with pulgarcito here about the lack of technology... we have access to pretty much everything. Yeah, it's (proportionally) way more expensive than it is for the majority of you guys, but there are many ways around it.

We have a lousy exchange rate against most major currencies, but this works to our advantage. A lot of companies are choosing to produce here, and this -I believe- is bringing new work ethics and raising the standards for local productions as well.

I've been fortunate to work with some of them, and having my music heard all over the continent, which is something most of my US colleagues with comparable experience can't say very often.

I'm not going to say I'm proud to be from here and all that crap. But it's not as bad as most people perceive it to be (media-wise... I'm certainly not going to extend this into a complex socio-political essay).

E.