On the Eve of a Latino Era in Film

In a year in which Latin pop music stars exploded on the airwaves and presidential candidates are feverishly stumping in Espanol, Latinos in film have been virtually invisible. There were zero Latino-themed movies in English on the silver screen and a only a handful of Spanish-language films distributed this year in the U.S. But there are some signs--small but significant--that more promising days could be ahead for Latino filmmakers and audiences.

It appears that Hollywood is finally starting to take notice of this burgeoning market. Over the past months, a number of deals have been made to produce and distribute Latino-themed films in English and Spanish. Local film festivals have highlighted the work of contemporary Spanish-language filmmakers--to rousing success. Some studios and independents are actively pursuing projects for this market that could be released in the next few years.

“We are looking for good stories in this area,” said Mark Gill, president of Miramax Los Angeles, which will distribute a film about artist Frida Kahlo, starring Salma Hayek, set to begin production next year. “You’d have to be asleep not to realize what is happening in demographics in this country. Even Hollywood is catching on.”

Among the recent developments:

* Latin Universe, a distribution company headed by a former Universal Studios acquisitions executive, will release the Mexican film “Santitos,” an offbeat romantic comedy, in U.S. theaters in December. The film, which has grossed more than $700,000 in three weeks in Mexico, is the first in a series of commercial Spanish-language films that Latin Universe hopes to pick up for distribution in the U.S.

* New Latin Pictures, founded by classic-film distributor Kit Parker and his partner Lawrence Martin, will release the Mexican American, English-language film “Luminarias” in February in Los Angeles theaters.

* The film “Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas” (Sex, Shame and Tears), took in $12 million at the box office in its native Mexico, outgrossing “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.” Now 20th Century Fox, which released the film in Mexico, is in discussions to release the film in the U.S.

* Director Gregory Nava will begin shooting at least one film under a contract with New Line Cinema to produce several Latino-themed movies. Though the studio has not determined which film will be first, Nava and his partner Susana Zepeda’s company, El Norte Productions, are currently working on three different projects.

* Artisan Entertainment--the studio that hit the jackpot with its innovative “Blair Witch Project” Internet marketing campaign this summer--is planning to rerelease Nava’s 1983 drama “El Norte” in April, targeting the Latino audience. By the end of the year, the studio plans to announce an aggressive new campaign to produce and distribute a slate of Latino-themed films.

* Actor John Leguizamo’s Lower East Side Films will begin production on the story of Mexican composer Juan Garcia Esquivel, who popularized the “Space Age Bachelor Pad” music famous in the 1960s. That film will be released by Fox Searchlight. In addition, Lower East Side Films will produce the story of Puerto Rican poet Miguel Pinero, to be directed by Cuban playwright Leon Ochaso.

* Jimmy Smits will star in Esparza/Katz Productions’ “Price of Glory,” a film set in East Los Angeles about a boxing family to be released next year by New Line Cinema.

* More than 23,000 people showed up at the 10-day Latino International Film Festival in October, compared to 15,000 last year. Two hundred people were turned away for the U.S. debuts of “Santitos” and “Luminarias” and three other films were sold out during the festival at the 600-seat Egyptian Theater.

* The American Film Institute’s film festival, which ended last Friday, featured a Latin Cinema Series highlighting seven films from Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Cuba. The series, which for the first time was an official category of the festival, drew about 3,500 people--a huge jump in attendance considering last year only one Latin film was screened. AFI Festival director Jon Fitzgerald says he hopes to keep the Latin series an annual event.

What these events have in common is a growing feeling in Hollywood that the U.S. Latino audience is starving for films in Spanish or movies in English that reflect their culture. “We are waiting to see who goes first,” said Jorge Carreon, publicist with 20th Century Fox’s international arm. “Someone has to have the foresight [in film] to make this happen in this country, and I guarantee you it will filter out.”

Films Not Keeping Up

With Larger Audience

Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the moviegoing audience in the United States, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America. In Los Angeles, 45% of the prime moviegoing audience is Latino according to a recent Nielsen study.

But creating a steady flow of Latino-themed films that do well at the box office has its challenges.

“You have to find the right films and then build the networks,” said Nava. “It’s pioneering work.” Nava’s project with New Line will give the director a chance to make several commercial films. Among the projects are a comedy set in Los Angeles called “Taco Truck: The Movie”; the story of a Fresno-area high school track team and the story of a guitar-making family in East Los Angeles. The key to tapping into the Latino audience is making mainstream films and marketing them in English and Spanish, Nava said.

Successfully marketing to Hispanics in Spanish and English is something that, for the most part, still eludes Hollywood. In addition, the Latino community’s diversity--in class and country of origin--has been an obstacle in creating the kind of audience base that African Americans have successfully organized to support films such as “Waiting to Exhale.”

“We are realistic,” said Artisan Entertainment president Amir Malin. “There tends not to be a great deal of common denominator [among all Hispanics] except language. I come from a premise that there is not one monolithic Hispanic community in the U.S. “

There is also a general misunderstanding in Hollywood about Spanish-language audiences, said Ted Perkins, head of Latin Universe. His company intends to pick up commercial films that appeal to the general Latino public which supported films like “The Mask of Zorro” and “Titanic.”

“With the Spanish-language movie, it’s a totally different audience than the Fine Line, Miramax audience,” said Perkins. “There are a lot of factors to take into consideration. We are going to be very careful in what we pick up.”

But the numbers are clear. Even though Hispanics are already going to mainstream American fare, there are signs of a real yearning to see films that reflect Latin sensibilities and star Latinos. For instance, neither television, radio nor print media had done a special story announcing the U.S. debut of “Santitos” or “Luminarias” at the Latino Film Festival in Los Angeles. Publicity for the festival was poorly planned. Still, the crowds increased on a daily basis.

“It was horrible,” said festival manager Noel Vega, recalling the lines outside of “Santitos.” “We were praying that the fire marshal wouldn’t show up. We thought we were going to be shut down.” Not only is the Hispanic population growing, but the quality of Spanish-language films coming from Latin America and Spain is improving. There is “an explosion of talent” coming from Latin America and Spain, said AFI’s Fitzgerald.

In Mexico, for example, a new wave of young directors are making contemporary, sophisticated films that have lured audiences back to Mexican cinema. For a while, the Mexican film industry was lost in creative and financial mire, causing filmgoers to support mainly American blockbusters. But this year marked a turning point with the release and success of “Sexo,” “Santitos,” and “The Other Conquest” (La Otra Conquista), a period film set in colonial Mexico, which also hit it big at the box office.

This year, most of the films screened at the Latino festival were made by first-time directors.

“It’s important for the film industry to have an opportunity to see this new talent,” said Fitzgerald. “I think things are changing. You can’t ignore the fact that there is a large demographic that wants to see these films.”