by Jeffrey Winter
AFI FEST Daily News

This year 45 community groups throughout Los Angeles are promoting and marketing the many specialty and niche films of AFI FEST presented by Audi.

As an international film festival located at the geographical hub of one of the most diverse and international cities in the world, AFI FEST relies on these groups.

It's all part of a ground-breaking cross-promotional relationship created by the AFI FEST Community Outreach Department headed by marketing guru Orly Ravid.

The AFI FEST Community Support program connects diverse non-profit organizations and their respective communities with related films from around the world.

AFI FEST and these local organizations work together to make sure the festival connects to as wide an audience base as possible, across the numerous demographics of Los Angeles.

Whether it be Latino/Latina films, Middle-Eastern Films, Korean cinema, Queer cinema, or the latest from Africa, the Community Supporter program finds LA's finest organizations stepping up to the plate to outreach to their varied and diverse constituencies about AFI FEST films that speak to their lives, traditions, languages, and experiences.

Community Supporters for AFI FEST 2006:

• Afro Funke
• Altitude Magazine
• APA First Weekend Club
• Artists for a New South Africa
• Asia Society Southern California
• Asian Pacific American Legal Center
• Baraban.com
• Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC) - African American First Weekend Film Club
• CAP (Children After School Program)
• CARE
• CARECEN
• Cinema's Legacy
• Consulate General of Switzerland Los Angeles
• Department of Black Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE)
• Consulate General of Sweden Los Angeles
• Consulate General of Argentina Los Angeles
• DIVA
• Dragstrip 66
• E-Latino Weekly.com
• Film Expats
• Froken Fredag
• Georgian Film Foundation
• Giant Robot
• Grindhouse Film Festival
• Homo A Go Go
• International Queer Music, Film, Art & Activism Festival
• Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA)
• International Documentary Association (IDA)
• James Coleman African Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles
• Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles Consulate (KCCLA) General of the Republic of Korea
• Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations
• Pan African Film Festival (PAFF)
• Shotgun
• Southeast European Film Festival (Los Angeles)
• Special Ops Media
• Visual Communications
• Vive tu Cine
• Women In Film