Latino Festival Hits Hollywood

For 10 days beginning Friday, Hollywood Boulevard becomes “el bulevar” as the fifth annual Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival screens more than 70 titles at the Egyptian Theatre.

The festival, presented by founder and producer Edward James Olmos, features Latino films and videos from the U.S., Latin America and Spain.

The opening-night film is “Vengo (I Am Here),” a Spanish film directed by Tony Gatlif. It is an ode to flamenco music set against a backdrop of two gypsy families locked in an age-old struggle for power.

Other notable films include two by Mexico’s Arturo Ripstein, “La Perdicion de los Hombres” and “Asi es la Vida,” and Francisco Lombardi’s “Tinta Roja,” a winner at last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival for actor Gianfranco Brero. Lombardi, from Peru, is also represented with “Pantaleon y las Visitadores.”

In addition to being a platform for filmmakers seeking distribution in the U.S., the festival seeks to present a sample of the richness and diversity of Latino culture and artistry.

The event introduces a Woman’s Program this year, highlighted by a pair of films that tied for the 2001 Sundance Film Festival’s Latin America Cinema Award: “Sin Dejar Huellas” by Mexico’s Maria Novaro and starring Aitana Sanchez-Gijon (“A Walk in the Clouds”), and Brazilian filmmaker Sandra Werneck’s “Possible Loves,” plus films by Gabriela Tagliavini (“The Woman Every Man Wants”) and Paula Hernandez (“Herencia”).

Highlighting a small program of films about Latino music will be the documentary “Accordion Dreams,” narrated by singer-songwriter Tish Hinojosa, which is scheduled to air on PBS in late August.

The festival will also dedicate a lifetime achievement award to the late actor Anthony Quinn and include a retrospective of his work.

Last Look at the Kaleidoscope? Local dance fans: You may hear screams of denial, but Saturday could be your last chance to sample the heretofore annual summer showcase called Dance Kaleidoscope.

The future of Dance K has been up in the air since the announcement at the beginning of the year that its longtime artistic director, L.A. dance teacher Don Hewitt, had bowed out of producing the event and would be retiring to Oregon.

This weekend, a one-night program of 10 companies and solo artists is billed as a tribute to Hewitt and carries the Dance Kaleidoscope name, but it’s hardly similar to the multiple programs over multiple weekends familiar from the past.

Still, Saturday’s event is something. In February, the board was hopeful but unwilling to guarantee that any events would take place this summer. As for the future, the same questions remain. While board members swear that Saturday is not Dance Kaleidoscope’s last dance, no replacement for Hewitt--and his total Kaleido-devotion--is in the wings and no plans for the future have been set.

Dylan Writes a New Chapter Watch for Columbia Records to announce this week that Bob Dylan will release his first new album in four years on Sept. 11. The collection, “Love and Theft,” finds the revitalized 60-year-old troubadour adding another new chapter to a career that included a Grammy for best album and an Oscar in recent years.

Recorded in the spring, the disc has 12 tracks, including “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum,” “Mississippi,” “Summer Days,” “Bye and Bye,” “Lonesome Day Blues” and “Floater.”

Robert Hilburn, The Times’ pop music critic, describes the new album as a dramatic break from the dark, melancholy, soul-searching tone of Dylan’s recent work--both “Time Out of Mind,” the 1997 collection that won a Grammy for album of the year, and “Times Have Changed,” the 2000 tune for “Wonder Boys” that won Dylan an Academy Award for best song.

“After the brilliance of ‘Time Out of Mind,’ it’s easy to imagine Dylan continuing to mine that rich subject matter, but then he’s not someone who has stood still musically,” Hilburn says.

“On first listen, the new album is filled with an energy and imagination of its own--almost as if he wanted to revisit some of the classic pop, folk and rock musical textures he heard on the radio as a youngster in Minnesota. But he has reworked them into striking contemporary pieces, filled with his trademark level of dazzling lyric sophistication. It is a unique mix of party frenzy and serious reflection.”

--Compiled by Times staff writers