Coming soon! The Gabo Festival, a feast of tales for curious minds

​ Continuing along the path that Gabo bequeathed us: Medellin welcomes you to the Fourth Annual Gabriel Garcia Marquez Awards for Journalism and Literary Festival. From September 29 to October 1 we shall be getting together to learn, share and celebrate the best stories in Latin America. Today, we are presenting the image of the Fourth Annual Gabriel Garcia Marquez Awards for Journalism and Literary Festival, showing Gabo himself, smiling and cheerfully inviting all those curious minds to get ready to enjoy three days of the world´s very best journalism along with discussions on topics that so obsessed him such as music, cinema, literature and politics. There shall also be opportunities for journalism to look at topics such as fashion, technology and the environment. Every year, one of the most important features of this city-wide event shall be the prize-giving ceremony at which the winners of the Gabriel García Márquez Awards for Journalism shall be announced, for which a total of 1,608 nominations were received this year and which are currently subject to the first of three rounds of judging. The Festival's schedule of activities, to be announced in July, includes seminars, workshops, documentaries, exhibitions, artistic performances and a concert. All activities shall be free of charge that is to say, the public shall be allowed free admission to each of these. This year, the Festival shall be held mainly in the Botanical Garden, but several universities and other venues such as the Gabriel García Márquez TV Channel hosted by Telemedellín, the Explora Park and the La Pascasia Cultural Center shall be holding various activities . This Fourth Annual Gabriel Garcia Marquez Awards for Journalism and Literary Festival is being sponsored by the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for New Latin American Journalism (FNPI in Spanish), with the aim of encouraging the pursuit of excellence, innovation and ethical coherence, inspired in the ideals and work of Gabriel García Márquez and the dynamics of innovation, creativity and leadership that characterize Medellin, Colombia. The Prize-Giving Ceremony and the Festival itself have been made possible through a public-private partnership formed by the Mayor of Medellin and organizations such Bancolombia and Grupo SURA and its subsidiaries in Latin America.   Invitations  to attend 8 free workshops at the Gabo Festival 2016   The Gabo Festival shall host 8  four-hour workshops free of charge for journalists, academics, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, critics and the public at large who love to tell a good story. These invitations to attend shall be open until June 21, at the following website premioggm.org where the date, time and place of each workshop and more detailed information concerning each one can be found.   Criticism in the digital age A.O. Scott, film critic with The New York Times Get to know the challenges and opportunities facing critics in these times of cultural globalization, audience fragmentation and rapid technological change.   Women lost, other women Judith Thurman, a journalist for The New Yorker. Pulitzer Prize finalist Judith Thurman has published profiles of the great designers of the last century such as Chanel, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent. This workshop shall explore the craft of a critic and the challenges of writing about literature, fashion, theater and photography.   Telling stories in  video format Bernardo Loyola, Programming Director of VICELAND, the television channel of the magazine VICE Learn some of the main factors for making good journalistic videos: instinct, narrative skills, production, technical resources, audio and image quality, powerful actions, rhythm, editing, accuracy and logic.   Journalism without borders: from Steppenwolf to transnational, collaborative and global impact reporting Marina Walker, deputy director of the ICIJ and Rigoberto Carvajal, ICIJ data analysts, and leaders of the Panama Papers project Papers Panama was one of the great milestones of investigative journalism in 2016, product of the joint efforts on the part of a team of nearly 400 journalists from 107 media in 76 countries. How did they do?, What can we learn from this great example of networking journalism?   The dream of beginning a journalistic endeavor Maria Teresa Ronderos, director of the the Independent Journalism Program run by the Open Society Foundations The aim of this workshop is to encourage a more entrepreneurial spirit, under the guidance of this renowned journalist who is leading one of the entities that provides the most support to new independent journalism projects worldwide.   From "on the ground" to the page: How to survive a blank page after an exhausting investigation? Oscar Martinez, journalist with Sala Negra, El Faro One of the challenges after a long-term investigation is being able to face the blank page. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss ways of playing into your own hands while the investigation is being conducted .   Searching for a Personal Vision in Journalistic Photography Adriana Zehbrauskas, documentary photographer, included in Time Magazine's Top 29 instagramers that defined the world in 2014 How long should you work on a commission and how much time needs to be devoted to a certain topic? What is the impact of new digital platforms and mobile photography?   Digital Maps and Data Geoperiodism Gustavo Faleiros, creator of Infoamazonia.org How can we use data journalism, tools, information visualization and digital platforms to tell powerful stories about the environment? This workshop shall be held at the Explora Park in Medellin.