Introducing 70 Films From Latin Quarters

The Mexican film industry is reemerging from a lengthy dry spell with witty, smart and sophisticated films that have broken box-office records at home--a promising and surprising development that’s being spotlighted this week at the third annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

“There is a new optimism and a lot of young people are really working hard to enter the business,” said Sergio Arau, whose animated short “The Wall” will unspool at the festival, which starts today. “They are selling their homes, doing whatever to [finance] their movies.”

These young new directors and producers who chose to stay in their homeland during the film crisis of the 1970s through the early 1990s--rather than emigrate to the United States in search of work--are fueling the cinema revitalization. Though some of the young directors, like Arau, live part time in the United States, their films are produced and shot in Mexico. They are no longer depending solely on government-backed financing as the preceding generation did; they’re finding their own means of producing films.

“The Mexican public is now realizing that Mexican film and Mexican stories are worth seeing,” said Alejandro Springall, whose directorial debut “Santitos” will be released in the United States in November. “This generation of filmmakers is part of a new, modern and advanced Mexican society despite our economic and political problems.”

The film festival, which runs through Oct. 10 at the Egyptian Theatre, illustrates the wide range of Mexican films. Among the entries are first-time directors like Antonio Serrano, whose film “Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas” (Sex, Shame and Tears) has broken box-office records in Mexico. Other films include Carlos Bolado Munoz’s “Bajo California,” co-directors Marisa Sistach and Jose Buil’s “El Cometa” and Springall’s “Santitos,” winner this year of the Sundance Jury Prize.

Veteran Mexican directors Arturo Ripstein and Carlos Garcia Agraz are also showing their respective films “Divine” and “La Paloma de Marsella.”

In the Mexican short film category, a second generation of directors is making its debut. Arau, a former rock musician and son of “Like Water for Chocolate” director Alfonso Arau, will present his first animated film, the aforementioned “The Wall.” Legendary director Paul Leduc’s daughter Valentina Leduc is showing “La Historia de I Y O” (Mr. and Mrs. O).

But Mexico isn’t the only country experiencing a resurgence in filmmaking. A wave of young talent is sweeping through Latin America, said Marlene Dermer, the L.A. festival’s co-founder and director of programming. More than a dozen countries from the Americas and Spain are represented in the festival.

“I feel really great about so many young directors across the board,” she said. “They are not only Mexican but Argentine, Brazilian, etc. There is such a large variety of films as well, I think that is a really positive thing. This is the generation of the future.”

Among the festival’s 70 films to be screened are Spain’s “Las Ratas” (The Rats), “Barrio” and “Entre las Piernas” (Between the Legs). Argentina’s entries include “El Viento Se Llevo Lo Que” (What the Wind Swept Away), which won best picture at the San Sebastian Film Festival last year, “La Sonanbula” (The Sleepwalker) and “Secretos Compartidos” (Shared Secrets).

Brazilian first-time director Lauizio Abranches will show “Glass of Rage,” and Cuba’s entry includes “Si Me Comprendieras” (If you Understood Me). The U.S. contingent includes Chicano theater director Jose Luis Valenzuela’s first feature-length film “Luminarias,” Cuban American director Maria Escobedo’s “Rum and Coke,” and “Mud Water and Factories” by Mario de Verona and Joe Corona.

Longtime Spanish director Carlos Saura (“Tango”) is also scheduled to receive a lifetime achievement award.

The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, which is co-sponsored by The Times, has been growing steadily over the last three years. Founded by Dermer and actor Edward James Olmos, the festival has quickly become one of the largest Latino and Spanish-language showcases on the West Coast. Last year, more than 17,000 people attended the festival, organizers said. This year they are expecting more than 20,000.

“We are very young,” said Dermer. “This has been the most difficult year in terms of programming because of the selection, and we only have one big screen.”

The number of good Mexican films made for tough choices, Dermer said.

“Mexico went through a real slump there for a while,” she said. “The number of productions has increased.”

The reemergence of Mexican film has been taking place slowly over the last six years. From the early 1970s through the early 1990s, Mexico’s film industry suffered a creative and financial crisis. With few exceptions, the majority of films being made were cheap, soapy productions that floundered at the box office. This prompted an exodus of talent that landed either in Europe or the United States.

But when the Mexican filmmaking unions began opening their ranks to younger filmmakers in the late 1980s, a younger generation slowly worked its way into the business. The unreliable financing of the government-sponsored film industry forced younger directors and producers to find independent means of financing.

Some of the first films to come out of this independent-minded era were Guillermo del Toro’s 1993 science-horror flick “Cronos,” Maria Novarro’s “Danzon” in 1992 and Alfonso Cuaron’s 1991 comedy “Solo Con Tu Pareja” (Love in the Time of Hysteria). These films were critical successes but performed modestly at the box office. But over the past year, U.S. studio-backed companies like Fox International have led heavy marketing and distribution campaigns for these films, resulting in a return of Mexican audiences to Mexican films in theaters.

Investments by U.S. exhibitors in new, state-of-the-art multiplexes also sparked a heated competition with Mexico’s entrenched theater owners to modernize or rebuild the country’s crumbling theatrical infrastructure, which helped fuel growth in attendance.

“In the early 1990s, there were a lot of good Mexican films, but nobody saw them because there was not a good distribution,” said Bolado Munoz. “We have had to do a lot of work to convince people that the quality of Mexican film has improved.”

American audiences, however, are unlikely to see many of these films at their local theaters. So far, only “Si Me Comprendieras” and “Santitos” have found U.S. distributors.

“I don’t think people know how to market them,” said Dermer. “We are still trying to break from the classification of an art film. These are films for the masses and [bilingual-bicultural Latinos] are 40 million strong in this country. I think demographics will help change things. These [Latino] festivals also show that there is a public for these films.”

* The festival begins today and runs through Oct. 10 at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. For ticket and schedule information: (323) 469-9086.