Pedro Urrutia’s First Film Código Paz Closes Dominican Film Showcase in Washington with Great Success

Sunday November 22nd, 2015

The Dominican Film Showcase in Washington DC, an initiative of the GFDD, closed with an excellent finishing touch on Saturday with the screening of Pedro Urrutia’s first film: Código Paz.

The audience lauded the first Dominican-made action film and was also delighted by the presence of the young director at the Art Museum of the Americas. Código Paz has been a great success in the Dominican Republic and is now enjoying worldwide attention. It is the first Dominican film, made under the Film Law, to open simultaneously in all theaters around the country to record audiences and to be showing for a record 19 consecutive weeks in local theaters.

With its stellar cast, the film tells the story of Pedro Ruíz, an impatient thief, from a working class background in Villa Consuelo, who leads a double life. During the day he works as a real estate agent in a large company; at night, he and a neighborhood friend, Wellington, rob the homes he sells.

Natasha Despotovic, Executive Director of GFDD, welcomed the audience to the screening and presented an institutional video about the Foundation, followed by an introduction of the special guest. After the film screening, a lively discussion was held with the audience.

Ms. Despotovic explained that Pedro Urrutia began his career in the film world at the young age of 19 when he worked at local yet renowned Dominican film companies in the area of production, post-production, film crew grip, and editing. In 2008, after finishing his studies at UNIBE in Advertising Communication, he was awarded a Bret Ratner Scholarship to attend the New York Film Academy for all of 2009.

In 2010, upon returning to the Dominican Republic, he founded Ave Studio, a production company specializing in video clips. He was nominated for the Casandra Awards 2011 for the video clip, “Vakeró – Que mujer tan chula” and the Soberano Awards 2013 for “Melymel – En Francés,” opening the way to international television exposure.

In 2012 he decided to take a new route with new challenges and work in an area for which he had a deep passion: cinema. He began to develop the idea for his own first feature film – CódigoPaz. That same year, he created Alliance One Film Production Company, founded under the Dominican Film Law. Código Paz was the first in a new genre of Dominican cinema…action film.

Urrutia explained that the public’s reaction in the Dominican Republic was “powerful, because it reflected reality. We even had to remove some of the violent scenes. But the film has a message: our country, right now, is experiencing a very difficult time, in which drug trafficking has gained a lot of power. And that has to change.”

The audience highly praised Urrutia during the question and answer session.

“You have done something unique and unparalleled in Latin American countries,” said Harold Ortiz. “You have broken the scheme and for that reason you are going to be very successful.”

More information:
www.globalfoundationdd.org