Cinema Espanol

Southern California is home to both the largest motion picture industry in the world and the largest Latino population in the nation. So it would seem natural that there would be lots of contact between these two groups. But that hasn’t been the case, which is where the Latino International Film Festival comes in.

Last fall, the event’s founders tried to bridge that chasm by inviting themselves to their neighbor’s home to get acquainted, staging their inaugural five-day festival at Universal City. That visit proved so promising that they’ll be back this year with a 10-day event, beginning Friday, at four venues: the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood, Paramount Studios, the Universal Studios back lot and Universal City Cinemas on the Universal CityWalk.

“The most important thing is that it’s happening,” says Ethan van Thillo, founder and director of the 5-year-old San Diego Latino Film Festival, one of nearly a dozen major Latino film festivals in the U.S.

The fact that Los Angeles went so long without a Latino festival “is shocking,” says Van Thillo. But now that one’s in place, he adds, it’s difficult to overstate its importance.

“The fact that it’s in the industry [capital] is important,” he says. “It’s one thing to get the film seen. But if you can get it seen and get someone in the industry to see it at the same time, that’s important.

“We need to take the next step. We need to get these [films] distributed.”

Although Hollywood is quick to point to directors like Gregory Nava (“Selena,” “El Norte”) and Richard Rodriguez (“From Dusk ‘Til Dawn”) as proof that the studios don’t discriminate, Latinos are still underrepresented among filmmakers. And despite the prolific work of talents like Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek and Jimmy Smits, a recent Screen Actors Guild study put Latino representation in film and television at just 4%.

So it’s not surprising that nurturing Latino filmmakers and introducing their work to Hollywood ranks high among the goals the

Los Angeles festival includes in its mission statement. But it was a goal that went unmet last year, when the festival drew only cursory interest from distribution companies.

“It’s not an easy thing to launch a new festival,” Barry Reardon, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., says in explaining the film industry’s lukewarm reception. But the festival’s importance in Hollywood is likely to be buoyed by a recent report from the Motion Picture Assn. of America that found Latinos to be the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic bloc of moviegoers.

Yet even if distribution deals fail to materialize, filmmakers insist that the event’s imprimatur will be an important stamp of approval for their work.

“It lends credibility to our film to be involved in an international film festival. We’re very proud,” says Simone Sheffield, producer of “Knockout,” the story of a woman prizefighter from East Los Angeles that will screen Tuesday at Universal City Cinemas.

Sheffield’s uplifting movie, which is being billed as the Latino “Rocky,” has already received interest from Universal and Sony/Telemundo. But the producer, who has more than 20 years of experience as a personal manager for general-market film talent, says the resistance she encountered from most studios was disturbing.

“No one is taking [the Latino market] seriously,” she said. “Latinos are underrepresented, especially in the movies. I think it’s the same thing blacks went through.”

Edward James Olmos, the festival’s executive director and the star of films such as “Stand and Deliver,” “Selena” and “American Me,” understands the problems of Latino filmmakers. Many films with Latino casts or themes rarely make it to theaters, he notes. And if the films are produced in Latin America, the chances for a wide U.S. distribution are slimmer still.

“The dream is to be able to create a venue in which people can come and see film,” Olmos says. “And the films that they will see are films that they would not have had an opportunity to see because no one has been able to go out and scour the country and the world to find these films and bring them in.”

Adds programming director Marlene Dermer, who has helped introduce Latino films to festivals around the world: “Our goal is to do for Latino films what Sundance did for the independents. We will highlight award-winning films as well as films that have not yet received distribution.”

Among the more than 70 feature films, documentaries and shorts the festival will screen are 10 from Mexico, six from Spain and five from Brazil. Other films will come from Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Cuba, Argentina and Puerto Rico.

Included among those are the Colombian film “La Vendedora de Rosas,” which will make its U.S. debut during Friday night’s opening ceremonies; “The Obstinate Story,” an unusual documentary on the Chilean coup and society’s reaction to it, which screens Saturday; “Linda Sara,” a Puerto Rican film by Oscar-nominated director Jacobo Morales starring Chayanne, which screens Sunday; and “La Ciudad,” an emotional work about immigration and cultural adaptation by New York filmmaker David Riker that will close the festival Oct. 11. Each film will run with either Spanish or English subtitles.

In addition, multi-film retrospectives on the work of actors Raul Julia and Rita Moreno and legendary Mexican filmmaker Gabriel Figueroa will also be featured. Julia will be posthumously presented with the festival’s lifetime achievement award while Moreno will receive the Tribute Award in ceremonies scheduled for Oct. 10 at Paramount studios.

The event drew fewer than 6,000 moviegoers in its debut last year, and organizers hope they’ll draw twice that number this year--hope that was bolstered when 1,500 advance tickets were sold at the Olmos-sponsored Latino book festival in August. If the festival meets that goal, it would become one of the largest Latino film festivals in the country. By comparison, the San Diego event drew a crowd of 3,500 in the spring.

But the high expectations have proved challenging for the festival’s fledgling organizational staff, which was still adding films and issuing tentative screening schedules less than two weeks before opening night.

Van Thillo, who directed San Francisco’s Latino film festival before founding the San Diego event in 1993, says such organizational problems are to be expected.

“It’s only their second year,” he says. “It takes time to reach a level you can be proud of.”

On the other hand, the very fact that the festival exists should inspire immense pride, says Olmos. And, distribution rights aside, that’s the real reason he founded the event in the first place.

“If we don’t expose our children to a tremendous amount of diversity . . . they’re not going to be able to live in this country,” Olmos says. “Lack of diversity is going to make us less than what we are. We are the most diverse country in the world, so why not celebrate it?”

BE THERE

Latino International Film Festival, screening Friday through Oct. 11 at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, 5230 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood; Universal Studios back lot; Paramount studios; and Universal City Cinemas at Universal CityWalk. Information: (323) 469-9066 or via the Web at https://www.latinofilm.org.

* MORE ON THE FESTIVAL: Screening Room looks at some of the films. Page 14. Weekend schedule. Page 33.