Marisa Tomei (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Marieve Herington (Big City Greens), Maroon 5’s Jesse Carmichael and Sam Farrar, Cosette Hauer (Gordita Chronicles), Benito Martinez (With Love, 9-1-1: Lone Star), Carlos Gomez (The Baker and the Beauty) and Momo Rodriguez (Mayans MC, Lopez vs. Lopez) are just some of the celebrities confirmed to attend the Caribbean Nocturnes Veterans Day Benefit Concert hosted by Air Force veteran and This Is Us star, Jon Huertas and featuring Joachim Horsley and The Hollywood Chamber Orchestra. The star-studded red carpet event will take place on Veterans Day, Friday, November 11th at NeueHouse Hollywood and will benefit BaseCamp for Veterans, a 501c3 non-profit organization whose mission is to respond to the needs of those who serve our nation and protect its values, by promoting personal and professional growth, and contributing to an effective, sustainable path towards reintegration. US Veterans are invited to attend as guests of honor and will receive complimentary admission.

”We at BaseCamp for Veterans are thrilled to partner with Jon and Joachim for this event. We are honored to be recognized as this years beneficiary for our work with veterans and their families. Thank you to everyone who is participating and supporting our veterans, mustangs, and community by donating and contributing to the silent auction. We are truly grateful,” said Theo Windish and Deborah Plum, Co-founders of BaseCamp for Veterans.

The BaseCamp for Veterans Online Auction is officially open to the public and will run through midnight on November 11th. Supporters now have the opportunity to bid on one-of-a-kind items including a pair of authentic Colombian maracas handmade by Orito Cantora, Big City Greens Original Art by Chris Houghton and an African Safari Adventure for two, just to name a few of the unique items up for auction in support of BaseCamp for Veterans.

Guests attending the Caribbean Nocturnes Benefit Concert will also have the opportunity to attend the pre-concert masterclass featuring Composer/Pianist Joachim Horsley, Conductor Jacomo Bairos, and Colombian guest percussionists Jenn Del Tambó, Orito Cantora. This is a very special opportunity to learn about traditional Afro-Colombian music in detail, orchestration and composition and many other topics related to the show that evening.

Masters in the Afro-Colombian traditions of music, Orito Cantora and Jenn del Tambó are founders of the first network of women percussionists in the Caribbean who, at the root of their work, bring a mix of Cumbia, Bullerengue, Chalupa and other traditional rhythms of the Caribbean region. Orito is a composer, singer and a skilled maracas player who participates in several musical projects, among them the Red Tamboreras de Colombia, founded in early 2016 with percussionist Jenn Del Tambó. The duo are featured artists on the Caribbean Nocturnes album which was recently released and reached #2 on the World Music Chart.

Caribbean Nocturnes also features other guest artists from Europe, North and Latin American including English violinist, Charlie Siem; Miami’s Nu Deco Ensemble with Jacomo Bairos conducting; Cuban bassist, Damian Nueva Cortez; Colombian guitarist and percussionist Pedro Barrios; French, Caribbean percussionist, Natasha Rogers; Haitian percussionist, Jeff Pierre; Martinican percussionists Thomas Bellon and Boris Reine-Adelaïde; Venezuelan percussionist Yonathan “Morocho” Gavidia, The Hollywood Chamber Orchestra from Los Angeles, California, and Trinidadian Classical Soprano, Jeanine De Bique singing an original Caribbean Aria written by Horsley based on the Haitian poem Testaman by Felix-Morrisseau Leroy.

Caribbean Nocturnes Veterans Day Benefit Concert takes place on Veterans Day, November 11th at NeueHouse Hollywood located at 6121 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90028. Doors open at 7:30 PM and show begins promptly at 8:00 PM.

To purchase tickets, please visit: caribbeannocturnesLA.eventbrite.com

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Actor Jon Huertas seems to have a knack for making himself at home on long-running television series. For eight seasons he portrayed homicide detective Javier Esposito on ABC’s Castle.  Now, he is in season four of NBC’s This is Us, portraying Miguel Rivas on the large-ensemble comedy-drama. The series has recently received the announcement that it has been extended two more seasons. 

“Miguel is a different kind of personality than I portrayed in Castle, where I played a police detective who had a loose, comedic rapport with my detective partner.  We shot the show like a kind of detective noire series, infused with romantic comedy. It was fun, but it was much different than a family show like This is Us, which covers so many different kinds of issues, from body image to racial identity, inter-rational relationships, adoption, people with special needs.  It is a much different type of show. You have to play your characters a little more grounded and real.” 

The series chronicles the Pearson family across the decades, following Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) as young parents in the 1980s, to the present day lives of their 37-year-old children, Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown), searching for love and fulfillment. 

Huertas’ Miguel began as a recurring character in Season One, a blue-collar salesman, who became friends with Jack. In season two, he became a series regular. “Now in season four, I know that my character, in the minds of the audience, is becoming more welcome, more integrated into the Pearson family, helping out the family and eventually becoming part of the family. In terms of the series timeline, Miguel has grown from someone who was a salesman to someone who owns his own construction company by the time he retires. He came from almost nothing, migrating from Puerto Rico to Pennsylvania, not being able to speak English, to becoming prominent in his field, the construction industry. As the series moves on, we are going to see little bit more of his personal arc.” 

Huertas own personal arc is also interesting.  “I was raised in New York until I was 13, but I was actually born in a hospital in Virginia,” he says. “I wanted to be an actor since I was in the second grade, but I didn’t come from a family with money. I didn’t have an opportunity to go to college. So, I forged my own path as an adult.  I enlisted in the Air Force, which paid for my education, 75 percent of my tuition, which I did while still in the service. The universities from all over the country allow you to do correspondence. I enrolled at TCU in Texas. Of course, I got deployed to many places and I just earned my credits wherever I was.”

Huertas Served as an aircraft nuclear/conventional weapons specialist, participated in Operaton Just Cause in Panama and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. “That’s why it takes military students a long time to earn the usual four-year Bachelor’s Degree,” he chuckled. “I was in the Air Force for eight years. As soon as I was discharged I moved to Los Angeles to launch an acting career. What I took from the military a sense of discipline and initiative that helped me not get discouraged, to just stay with it and keep moving forward.”  

Indeed. Huerta got his first break in the ‘90s doing an ABC movie of the week, Spring Fling. “During the filming I met a guy who introduced me to his mother,” he recalls. “She became my first agent.” In 1998, Huertas was featured in the romantic drama, Why Do Fools Fall In Love? opposite Halle Berry and Ben Vereen. The next year he appeared in two films, the horror movie, Cold Hearts and the action movie, Stealth Fighter. From 1999 to 2000, he played Brad, a witch hunter, in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. In the 2000s, his career took off, appearing in many films, but his biggest role was in 2008 as Sergeant Espera in HBO’s miniseries, Generation Kill. Then in 2009, Huertas began his eight-season series regular stint in Castle. 

As Huerta says, he wants to keep moving forward, which has included directing. “I’ve been doing that for a while,” he reveals. “I just directed something last week. I also directed a Christmas special for ABC for the Home for the Holidays series. I produced my first film in 1999. It is very important for me as a Latino, having 25 years experience in this industry, to use that experience behind the camera. 

“We don’t have a lot of Latinos who are directors. In all my experience acting in Hollywood, I’ve been directed just once by a Latino, someone I could identify with who had some of the same life experiences that I’ve had.  So, I have felt a huge responsibility to step into those shoes. I want to assist in making that transition for Latinos as directors, writers and producers during the next few years. This is important and long overdue.”

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Equitas Entertainment Partners’ (EEP) powerful drama, Imprisoned, will have its world premiere at the 2019 Marché Du Film, the world’s largest movie marketplace, being held from May 13^th to 22^nd during the Cannes International Film Festival. Representing Equitas for sales and distribution is Cinema Libre International, the worldwide sales agency of Cinema Libre Studio. 

“We are excited to be screening our film Imprisoned at the Cannes Film Market,” said Executive Producer, Holly Levow. “There is no greater opportunity for independent filmmakers than to show our work in front of hundreds of buyers looking to strike a deal.” “And we are pleased that our social impact message aligns with that of Cinema Libre.”

Writer/Director Paul Kampf is proud to premiere this powerful and complicated story of hope, redemption, revenge, and forgiveness to Cannes’ discerning audience.  He says, “Screening this film for the Cannes buyers and audience will begin the buzz for our domestic theatrical release which will begin with our commitment to release in Puerto Rico in early September and work its way across the country in selected cities.”

The Marché du Film, the business wing of the Festival de Cannes, is the key stepping stone in the creation, production, and distribution of films around the world. The Marché du Film draws its strength from the diversity of the people it brings together: 12,400 industry professionals including 3900 producers, 3300 buyers and distributors and 1000 festival programmers all gathered in one unique setting to obtain financing, seize opportunities and take the pulse of international film creation and innovation. 

Imprisoned, starring Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix, Parabellum) with a powerful Latin cast including: Juan Pablo Raba (Wild District, Peppermint, Netflix’s Narcos), Juana Acosta (Olivier Assayas’ TV miniseriesCarlos, Velvet), Jon Huertas (This Is Us, Castle), Esai Morales (Ozark, How to Get Away with Murder), John Heard and Edward James Olmos (Mayans MC, Battlestar Galactica), is scheduled to screen on May 18, 19 and 20^th at the Cannes Film Market.

Cinema Libre and Equitas Entertainment will host a panel, MAKING SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FILMS at The American Pavilion on Monday, May 20^th at 10:00am where filmmakers, Holly Levow and writer/director Paul Kampf, will share clips from the film, lessons from filming in Puerto Rico and EEP’s focus on making a social impact, moderated by CLS’ Philippe Diaz. A market badge and invitation is required and may be picked up at Cinema Libre booth located at Riviera F3. 

Imprisoned tells the story of Daniel Calvin (Fishburne), a man haunted by a past full of loss, revenge and guilt. He’s living a life far different than the one he had years earlier as the strong-willed prison warden overseeing the lives of hundreds of violent criminals in a Puerto Rican prison. One of those men, Dylan Burke (Raba), had made many mistakes in his life, but he put his dark past behind him when he found his true love, Maria (Acosta). It is the idyllic life they both never dreamed. But when Warden Calvin realizes Dylan is the man that caused his wife’s death twenty years earlier, a darkness grows in him and leads to framing Dylan for a brutal murder that he did not commit. When Dylan is locked away under Warden Calvin’s charge, the hunter becomes the hunted. But Dylan’s will is too strong to let the warden turn him back into the man he once was, as Dylan chooses righteousness over revenge. In the end, the warden is left with the guilt of his actions and only one choice to rectify all the wrong he has done.

 View Trailer

Equitas Entertainment Partners believes films can have a positive social impact by exploring facets of lives often overlooked and also by the manner in which they make films. Their model endeavors to prove that stories can be entertaining, thought–provoking, socially responsible and fiscally profitable. Gender pay equality matched with opportunities for the under-represented in front of and behind the camera makes a more rounded work environment and serves the project at every level. 

Equitas Entertainment is based in Los Angeles. For more information about their films, please visit: www.equitasentertainment.com

Detailed information about the film and screening schedules are listed in the Pocket Guide, the Dailies, Cannes Market News and at Cinando.com.

Imprisoned — U.S. and Latin American theatrical release – August, 2019
Equitas Entertainment Partners
Writer / Director: Paul Kampf
Executive Producer: Holly Levow
Producer: Tom Sperry

Cannes Sales Agents: Cristian Bettler, cbettler@cinemalibrestudio.com
International@cinemalibrestudio.com

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