Hurry, or You’ll Miss Them

As a fan of world cinema and Latin cinema in particular, “A New Mexican Revolution” (by Lorenza Munoz, March 10) gave me hope that things are turning around.

Viewing Latin cinema in this country or even L.A., however, is something of a crapshoot.

A film like “Y Tu Mama Tambien” will be seen by a small portion of its potential audience for two or three weeks at five or 10 theaters (if they’re lucky). The larger audience (those of us who don’t run out the first week of a film’s release and subsequently miss it when it’s pulled) have to wait for either a VHS copy or a DVD to see it at home.

I love films; they are nourishment to me. I don’t see them once and forget about them. I will see a good film five or six or 10 times. A good film is like a good book, a good friend; there is always something to learn or absorb no matter how many times you read or, in this case, see it.

That’s the thing that really bothers me about the current state of home video and Latin cinema (or world cinema for that matter). Why is it that a film like “No One Writes the Colonel,” by the Mexican genius Arturo Ripstein, has to be bought from a distributor in Hong Kong in order to be seen in Los Angeles, when the film itself was shot a mere 200 or 300 miles from the Civic Center?

It’s absurd.

Would it be asking too much to have the Latin film community consider doing what has been recently done in Russia (via the Russian Film Society, issuing some 150 films by Russian filmmakers) by establishing a film society for all Spanish-speaking countries (Spain, Portugal and Cuba figure in there too) to make not only recent films (those which are not being distributed in the U.S.) but also classic films (which make up a vast and rich treasure trove of amazing examples of cinema) available on DVD to the North American audience?

Those of us who spend hours glued to movies on Channel 34 or 22, watching very bad prints of some of the great films of the 1940s and 1950s, would love nothing better than to see not only these films reissued, but the hundreds of great films that have come out of everywhere from Mexico to Argentina treated with the respect and admiration they deserve and made available to an audience that has no idea they exist.

GORDON SKENE

Los Angeles

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Thanks for the article on Mexican movies, but if someone lives out in the boonies or doesn’t have the money to visit the one or two theaters showing these and other foreign films, what can one do? Wait for them to come out as rentals. Only one problem: Very few foreign films are available to rent outside Hollywood (probably--I wouldn’t know ‘cause I don’t live in Hollywood). It’s as if we have the attitude that no one can make a good movie except an American.

I’m still trying to find a copy of “Santitos” (Mexico, 1998) and “The Terrorist” (India, 1998) for rent. You can’t even buy “Santitos” apparently. As for “The Terrorist,” Hollywood Video has it in its database, but just try to locate a store that has a copy. I gave up.

Based on my unofficial record-keeping during the past three or four years, perhaps one out of 20 foreign films and perhaps one out of seven or eight independent films I see ads for in your paper are available for rent 12 to 24 months after their theatrical release.

But, hey, I guess I shouldn’t complain because, after all, my local Blockbuster has 473 copies of “Get Carter” and 693 copies of “American Pie 2.” And, no, the Sundance and Independent Film cable channels don’t broadcast very many of these movies either.

LOU COHAN

Cypress

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There are not enough filmmakers to show the Mexican daily struggle to survive. Those who do, like Alfonso Arau and other filmmakers mentioned in the article, have to go into exile to avoid political persecution.

The government of Mexico does not encourage young people from lower classes to go into filmmaking by offering programs that could reach poor regions of the country. Instead we get filmmakers who come from higher social classes with perhaps more opportunities to reach for resources so they can make their films.

Sadly, that is the way it works, and, sadly, that does not allow people outside Mexico the opportunity to see and hear a rich culture with other voices trying to be heard.

JESUS ALBERTO ALVARADO

Pasadena