THE PAGAN IMAGE - Edwin Pagán's Media Discussion Sound Board

LA CASA MUDA (The Silent House) Speaks Volumes to Horror Fans

2010-04-22T16:51:00.007-04:00

http://latinhorror.com/onthehorrizon/lacasamuda

The stuff of horror and the conventions filmmakers use to frighten us are nothing new: science has not discovered any new human emotion to tamper with, and the filmmaker's toolbox has contained the same tricks or treats for over a 100 years now (more or less); it's all been done before. But an original story with an approach that speaks to the director's singular vision will always feel fresh and sincere.

First impressions are everything, and judging from the trailer of La Casa Muda (The Silent House), Uruguayan national Gustavo Hernández is set to put that South American region, mostly known for its agriculture, on the international map of horror, as well bring more exposure to the genre of Latin-based horror. Especially since it was announced just yesterday that La Casa Muda was selected to be among the 24 films that will showcase as part of this year's Directors’ Fortnight during the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. La Casa is Uruguay's official entry.

(not to mention that sci-fi phenom Federico Alvárez will shoot part of the feature-length version of his extremely virulent short Panic Attack! in Uruguay later this year, too)

The story of La Casa Muda centers on a father and daughter team who settle into a dilapidated cottage to begin to make some much-needed repairs. And as an organically built-in metaphor to the director's land-locked country, that is surrounded on three sides by Brazil and Argentina, the protagonists soon find themselves with only one possible way out of their dire dilemma - directly through the unknown evil force that threatens their very existence. The story, we are told, is based on true events that took place in Uruguay in 1944. This detail makes the premise instantly all the more intriguing in The Blair Witch Project kind of way (but hopefully with a genuine payoff). And given what we've seen so far, we think there will be.

La Casa Muda is shot in a single, continuous 78-minute take using a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) Canon's D5—a still camera with the added capacity to shoot full 1080 HD video (part of that 'more or less' equation). The film's look is a marvel given the technology utilized (the D5s were first generation, buggy and tempermental units) and the credit goes to cinematographer Pedro Luque. Producer Gustavo Rojo also needs to be singled out for effectively managing such an enormouse orchastration and coming out the other side with a production as visually rich on only a shoe-string budget: around $6,000!

The film follows in the footsteps of other shake-and-brake films with its use of hand-held camera work (think Cloverfield and District 9). But unlike those nausea-inducing pills that ran amok in their sprawling environments, La Casa is more in line with its Spanish counterpart, REC (with whom it shares a few similarities), bound to close quarters with movement more an innate byproduct of the story than a forced joyride. Kudos go to DP Luque again for striking a visual balance (incidently, it should be noted here that Luque also shot the eye-catching Panic Attack!). Similarly like REC, it is also a first-person point-of-viewer.

But apart from all the semantics, the film's real power lies its ability to take away our safety net by focusing on the true and tried basics of fear without relying on ungrounded gimmicks or CGI. It's hard to do that when the camera doesn't stop rolling. The filmmaker's astutely bill this as "Real fear in real time." What lies in the shadows is as important as what we are allowed to see; the mind fills in the blanks. And we cannot pause, rewind, or make it stop until its final conclusion.

Making us feel powerless in the dark, now that's true horror.

Ladies and gentlemen, Gustavo Hernández has left the building...

"The HORRORphiles #2 - Scaring up a Revolución" / BLOODY MARY COCKTAIL SHOTS

2009-04-01T11:18:00.001-04:00

Dear LATIN HORRORphiles:

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the overwhelming response to LATIN HORROR and it series of Latin horror screenings. Your support is going a long way toward getting the word out about this venture to put this very worthwhile genre on the map.

I also wanted to inform you that we now have many more RSVPs than the capacity of the Anthology Film Archives will allow for the "The HORRORphiles #2 - Scaring up a Revolución" screenings, taking place on Saturday, April 4th. And since it's "general seating," I encourage you to come early and purchase your ticket(s) at the box office to ensure entry.

AND, if you arrive between 6:30 and 7pm, we will have complimentary "bloody mary" cocktail shots in the lobby for all our guests as a way to get you into the LATIN HORROR mood.

- LATIN HORROR Team

3:53 Trailer Online

2009-03-15T13:45:00.001-04:00

Dear LATIN HORRORphiles:

Here is a link to the trailer for Shawna Baca's film, 3:52 (staring America Ferrera), which is showcasing April 4th as part of "The HORRORphiles #2 - Scaring up a Revolución" screenings hosted by LATIN HORROR at Anthology Film Archives.

We hope you join us on April 4th and support the genre of Latin horror.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=61831006436&h=i_Gu1&u=wm3KI&ref=nf

- LATIN HORROR Team

"THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT" [Remake] Trailer.

2009-02-22T13:16:00.001-05:00

"THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT" Trailer.

Courtesy Trailer Addict:

http://tinyurl.com/dk89nj

SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2009

2009-02-19T19:15:00.001-05:00

The HORRORphiles #2 - Scaring up a Revolución"

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=51352450884

LATIN HORROR, in association with ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES, cordially invite you to another special edition of the NewLatino Filmmakers Screening Series — "The HORRORphiles #2 - Scaring up a Revolución" — featuring the work of emerging Latino/a directors working within the genre of horror.

Saturday, April 4, 2009 ~ 6:30pm-9:30pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue @ 2nd Street (Lower East Side)
New York, NY

Full program details coming soon.

- LATIN HORROR Team

LATIN HORROR is hitting the bricks..

2009-02-17T19:59:00.001-05:00

Dear LATIN HORRORphiles:

In our quest to ensure that the Latin horror movement seed begins to bear fruit, we are designing a series of advertisements entitled GET YOUR HORROR ON! designed to bring more like-mind folk into the ranks of the revolution.

When time allows, please take a moment and check out the first one we are releasing starting today. Of course, feedback is always welcome. And since this is an entirely grassroots effort, word-of-mouth is an indispensable part of making this a successful publicity push. So please pass it on to your fellow "dark creative expressionists" or anyone else you know who simply is a fan of horror.

http://tinyurl.com/aog8ku

Thanks so much for the ongoing support.

- LATIN HORROR Team

HEART-FELT THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS

2009-02-14T11:32:00.001-05:00

Dear LATINHORRORphiles:

We just wanted to convey how much we treasure your support of LATIN HORROR, especially in these early days of developing the fan-base that is allowing us to "scare up a revolution." Please take a moment and read our special message to you at --

http://www.latinhorror.com/

AND, if you'd like to share a piece of your heart with a loved one, just copy the image here --

http://tinyurl.com/cyaunw

With horrorific respect,

- LATIN HORROR Team

FIRST PHOTO OF SALMA HAYEK IN "CIRQUE DU FREAK" RELEASED

2009-02-13T15:05:00.001-05:00

IRST PHOTO OF SALMA HAYEK IN "CIRQUE DU FREAK" RELEASED - 2/13/09

The first photo of award-winning actress, SALMA HAYEK in Paul Weitz' "CIRQUE DU FREAK," as Truska, the bearded lady/vampire, has been released (sans the beard - go figure!): http://tinyurl.com/c37hne

The film adaptation is based on the series of young adult vampire novels of the same name by Darren Shan, Cirque du Freak tells the story of a boy (Chris Massoglia) who breaks a 200-year truce between two warring blood-sucking factions (Think GANGS OF NEW YORK meets THE LOST BOYS) after he and his best friends visit an illegal freak show, where an encounter with a alpha vampire, Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly), and a deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices. The cast also includes Willem Dafoe, Ken Watanabe, and Orlando Jones.

Cirque du Freak wrapped filming in New Orleans in June 2008 and will be released later this year by Universal Pictures.

LATIN HORROR will keep you appraised.

- LATIN HORROR Team

THE WOLFMAN WEBSITE LAUNCHED

2009-02-12T12:35:00.002-05:00

UNIVERSAL has launched a minimalist website for the highly-anticipated horror classic, THE WOLFMAN. http://www.thewolfmanmovie.com/

Oscar-winner, BENICIO DEL TORO (talk about inspired casting!) takes on the lead role of Lawrence Talbot. Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins will play his estranged father. The re-imagined film, being helmed by Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III, Jumanji, The Rocketeer), is set to hit screen across the U.S. on November 6, 2009.

LATIN HORROR ( http://www.latinhorror.com/ ) will provide an early update on the film, currently in post-production, in our March 2009 online issue, complete with all the excitement and rumors floating in the fan-base ether. LATIN HORROR will post the film's trailer as soon as it is made available and publish an in-depth review of the project when press screenings are held.

- LATIN HORROR Team

LH NEWS: JOE SENA CONFIRMED FOR APRIL 2009 LATIN HORROR

2009-02-11T12:20:00.001-05:00

Dear LATIN HORRORphiles:

We just received confirmation that we will be conducting an EXCLUSIVE profile of JOE SENA, president, SphereWerx Micromedia, in our April 2009 edition of LATIN HORROR online -- http://www.latinhorror.com

Joe Sena is a Latin horror entrepreneur responsible for bringing to market some of the most beloved horror merchandise in the last 20-years. Sena recently launched a series of 8” MEGO style action figures based on the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD brand [Joe: thanks for the Bill Heinzman Grave Yard Zombie - Badass!]. Sena is also the brain-trust behind StoreWerx, an online e-commerce retail service used by such genre brands as Fangoria, Dread Central, Rue Morgue, and Starlog, among others.

Read the entire exciting profile on JOE SENA and his ground-breaking contributions to horror EXCLUSIVELY in the April 2009 LATIN HORROR online.

More soon.

- LATIN HORROR Team

"BRONX BURNING" Selected into Tribeca Film Institute's 2007 TAA Connects Program

2007-03-25T22:00:00.000-04:00

New York, NY – March 21, 2007 [from Tribeca Film Institute's release] –

Tribeca Film Festival along with Tribeca Film Institute today announced the selected projects for the 4th Annual Tribeca All Access (TAA), a program designed to help foster relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers. Tribeca All Access will present 32 new projects at the five-day event, which runs April 25 – 29 during this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, held from April 25 – May 6.

Participating directors and screenwriters were selected from an open call for submissions, which garnered over 300 entries from across the country and will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with more than 100 potential investors, development executives, producers, and agents in prescheduled meetings.

“Tribeca All Access is now a recognized incubator for U.S.-based writing and directing talent,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Institute. “We are very proud to present this platform to celebrate a multiplicity of filmmaking voices.”

“Tribeca All Access is about identifying talent and challenging expectations,” said Beth Janson, TAA Program Director for the Tribeca Film Institute. “We are extremely proud of our selections this year and look forward to facilitating many new and exciting relationships.”

Two filmmakers and one screenwriter will be awarded the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award, which comes with a prize of $10,000 for narrative and documentary and $5,000 for screenwriting. Announcements regarding the winners will be made at the Tribeca All Access Awards Ceremony at the Tribeca Film Center on April 28th.

DOCUMENTARY CATEGORY:

About "BRONX BURNING" - Director: Edwin Pagan / Producers: Beni Matias, Edwin Pagan

BRONX BURNING tells the story of the tragic events and misguided policies which almost led to the complete destruction of a major U.S. borough and the residents who decided to stay and re-claim their neighborhoods from the ashes of neglect, economic opportunism and political indifference. BRONX BURNING recounts one of the most concentrated and widespread cases of "ecoterrorism" in modern history and explores the reasons why, despite a crisis of epic proportions, those responsible for orchestrating the most rampant and longest-lasting "fire-for-hire" crime waves have never been brought to justice.

For a full list of the 32 selected participants and their projects, point your web browser to -- http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org -- and click on TAA Connects, or at indieWIRE: www.indiewire.com/ots/2007/03/tribeca_07_32_p.html

NBC's FAST Payday Could Prove Beneficial to Latin Mediamakers

2006-02-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

WHEN NBC PURCHASED TELEMUNDO BACK IN 1992, most of us in the industry who are in-the-know, surmised that their intentions were not peppered with long-term plans but rather with the near-term profit potential of the network, after all, in the end, it is still a business commodity. And NBC has been doing a good job of enticing the entertainment moguls on the English side of the bandwidth for some time now by airing live the annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade, as well as the Latin Grammys, on their regular English-language NBC affiliate stations in the northeast and across the nation, particularly in the southwest with its large Mexican community. One could argue that the hen was being fattened for its broth.

Now, New York Times' business columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin has reported ("Univision Considers Going on the Block" - February 8, 2006) that UNIVISION's directors will meet to “consider” selling off that mega station. And now that the idea has been floated in the media, the company’s stakeholders will sit back to see who will commit the biggest bite in the feeding frenzy that is expected to follow. But at the moment we should only take the gesture as a conservative feeler of sorts put out to test the waters. If the offers are deemed respectable, the consideration will materialize into a reality and full blown offering overnight. If the obstacles to such a sale outweigh the asking price, then the prospect of such a transaction will vaporize faster than steam on a hot summer’s day. It is expected that Univision could sell for as much as $10 billion as the giant media brands compete for an extremely solid entry point into the lucrative Spanish-language market — that's a whole lotta chicken consommé!

On the optimistic end (from my personal wish list), if Time Warner purchased the Univision network it could expand its reach into the Hispanic sector it has already dipped its big toe into via its HBO Latino subsidiary and easily build on the relationships it’s built in the sector via the HBO strand(s), since it has taken some gutsy risks in backing smaller Latin projects like “Real Women Have Curves” and “Maria Full of Grace” and managed to make them winners; moves that have helped solidify their image as genuinely looking to work with the sector’s creative talent and build upon long-term mutually beneficial roots, not just the immediate kickback. Time Warner/HBO could additionally spice up the new venture through cross-pollination: bring the first-run entertainment initiatives it has been developing via HBO Latino to Univision, and inversely leverage Univision’s enormous built-in Hispanic speaking audience to its subscription-based cable holdings. This "ecomedia" business model could, feasibly, also provide a window for new programming that translates into new opportunities for Latino filmmakers, producers and show-runners for decades to follow.

HMM. This might just prove to be a win-win situation if all the cards are played correctly.
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Read the New Times article at: www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/business/media/08network.html

LATINO FILM NEWWAVE RENAISSANCE ON HORIZON

2006-02-06T09:26:00.037-05:00

"…and with today's youthful energy, it is not unlikely that a Latin Renaissance can yet take place in Hollywood, whose worldwide influence is bigger than ever, for better or for worse."

Those words summed up golden-age screen starlet Dolores Del Rio's forward to George Hadley-García's book, Hispanic Hollywood, in 1979. More than two decades later, they seem more prophetic than the hopeful wishes of a great actress in her twilight years (she died in 1983). Today, in mainstream Hollywood, Latinos are still under- and mis-represented. There is, however, an emerging crop that is quietly re-establishing the Hispanic presence in movie making, both in front and behind the cameras. Producers like Moctezuma Esparza (The Milagro Beanfield War, Selena), Academy Award-winner David Valdes (The Green Mile, Unforgiven) and D ennis E. Leoni (Resurrection Boulevard), and directors such as Robert Rodríguez (El Mariachi, Spy Kids 1 & 2) and Guillermo Del Toro (Mimic, Blade 2), are transforming the way the Hollywood studio system views this yet untapped, and often overlooked market.

The film Selena, based on the life and tragic death of the Tejano singing sensation, proved that a Latino-themed movie could capture the hearts of a North American audience. But it was Rodríguez' "stealthy" Spy Kids, with its $100 million+ box office gross, that proved it could also gain access to its wallet. While Selena showed that a film with a Latina in a lead role could successfully be made and distributed in the U.S. mainland/mainstream market, Spy Kids also demonstrated that a film about an adventurous family, that just happened to be Latino, could be a runaway box office smash.

The current established and emerging Latino filmmaker is fast gaining a foothold in both the Hollywood and independent film arenas. But even before the fuse is completely lit on what is being called as the emergence of the "Latino Film Explosion" on the East Coast, and "Cine Revolución" (Film Revolution) in the West, a series of national debates are being waged that promise to be, at the very least, high-spirited.

"The term 'explosion' bothers me immensely because the connotation is that where there is an explosion, a great silence often follows -- that something is lacking after all the noise has subsided," says Moctezuma Esparza. "What we are actually seeing now is an incremental buildup of Latino talent, writers, producers, directors, actors, agents, in all levels of the business, leading to a critical mass. The real question is 'will we maintain the development of a sustainable Latino film renaissance and a new aesthetic to guide it in the business of filmmaking?'" The answer, he says: "ABSOLUTELY."

According to Esparza, whose heavily-promoted HBO biopic, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, received critical acclaim, the next five to ten years will be a crucial period in what strides Latinos make in the entertainment industry. It will also be a period for us, he contends, to re-invent and modify the past negative perceptions within the industry via the next tier of contributions we make, as well as through the products that we produce. Ever the political activist, he also notes: "We have a responsibility to be ready to perform - ensuring that we can prosper even in the current industry retrenchment. It's challenging but we have to work to be part of both the formula and the equation."

Franc. Reyes, whose film Empire was screened at the Sundance American Showcase venue, falls on the side that a "Latino film explosion is inevitable. With the success of "Spy Kids," Robert Rodríguez has proved that not every Latino movie has to have a taco or rice and beans in it." He says. "Mr. Rodríguez chose to tell a universal story with Latino characters. This does more for us than Latin actors who think they are helping the community when they take high profile roles playing white or black characters."

JUMPING THE GREAT DIVIDE
But the silver screen isn't the only place where Latinos remain disproportionately absent. According to the National Association of Hispanic Journalist's Sixth Annual "Network Brown Out" 2001, "Latino stories continue to be seriously underrepresented in television news and their portrayals are often stereotyped and highly divergent from the true essence of Latino society and culture."

The recent death of legendary Mexican actress, María Félix, 88, illustrated the great disconnect among Latino and Anglo movie-going audiences: while Spanish-language television and print media outlets provided in-depth coverage of Felix' passing, English media sources in the U.S. barely mentioned it as a footnote. However, a British Broadcasting Corporation headline, while incongruously gauging her contributions to cinema to an American pop icon, nevertheless put her loss into its proper perspective: "Mexico mourns its 'Marilyn."

Interviewed in a 1999 by Mr. Showbiz online (now part of abcnews.com) in the midst of the so-called Latino pop music explosion, Mexican-born actress Salma Hayek referred to the Latino explosion as "BS." And added, "I'm doing great, but I can't sit here and say, 'Yeah, we're doing great! Latino power!' That's not true. It's just two of us. If I don't do it, if Jennifer [López] doesn't do it, the movie doesn't get done." Her remarks pointing to the major studios' reluctance to greenlight any Latino-themed projects without high profile/cross-over talent in the mix, as well as the lack of working Latino actors in the industry. Hayek has since taken matters into her hands and started her own production company, Ventanarosa, and begun to produce her own projects. Together with Miramax Films, the company will also produce Frida; a movie based on the controversial life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

The attention that was put on Latin music in 1999, lead by such talents as Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Jennifer López, and Enrique Iglesias, clearly caught the English language industry by surprise. When Rolling Stone asked record executives why this crop of artists were sweeping the charts, they could only point to the "surprising success of albums like Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club with non-Latin record buyers". Often at a loss as how to best market a Latino product, distributors simply missed the mark and instead marginalized the buying power behind the 30 million Hispanic Americans in the U.S. It should not come a surprise then that Hollywood's commercial film mill is yet to effectively realize the full potential of this sector, or even how to market it.

This trend may be coming to and end, however, as a new generation of Non-Hispanic and Hispanic audience looks for intelligent movie material. Similar to the energy that inspired the French New Wave of the 1950s and 60s, "Amores Perros", directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (nominated for a foreign-language Oscar last year), caught the attention of art houses around the U.S. and garnered a steady and respectable viewership.

This success has been similarly followed by the gritty coming-of-age, cross-country independent "Y tu Mamá También," written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. As more and more Latino filmmakers are allowed to fully demonstrate their skills and tell their stories, so too will the average moviegoer's appetite for such products increase. Given a proper chance and venue, this new and varied cinematic language can also become part of the American movie-going aesthetic. It should be remembered that both patrons and critics of early French cinema were hard pressed to assimilate the material and often referred to these films as merely "over romanticized anti-establishment fodder created by young Turks and fascists." It is remarkable, then, that François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, and Jacques Rivette are all today considered legendary movie-making pioneers.

THE PUBLIC TELEVISION/CABLE CONNECTION
Many emerging filmmakers dream of getting that all-important big break that propels them into the Hollywood A-list. These same dreamers often frown of seeking the "incremental" path of cutting their teeth in another medium such as television, or God forbid, public television. But as we've discovered, public and cable television outlets offer some advantages not immediately recognized by many.

Seasoned director Gregory Nava's showcase, American Family, the first drama series ever to air on broadcast television featuring a Latino cast, and the first original primetime American episodic drama on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in decades, was picked up after it was shopped around the premium cable circuit. While this may seem an extremely odd match at first glance, the series is doing very well in this medium. Unlike in cable where there is a subscription fee, local PBS stations are free and don't require any special installations, allowing an extremely broader base of homes to enjoy the series.

Nickelodeon's The Brothers García (about a Mexican-American family in San Antonio) and Taína (about a teenage Puerto Rican girl from New York who wants to be a pop star) are yet two more examples of Latino-themed programs that are doing well in what was once considered a non-conventional distribution outlet for filmmakers.

In fact, The Brothers García is currently the highest rated cable program among the Tweeners age group (8-14), a demographic greatly coveted among advertisers.

Cynthia López, director of communication for POV, agrees that many more emerging filmmakers should be taking advantage of this medium. "If you take into account that there are over 387 channels running programming on PBS alone, then the bigger picture of exposure and distribution starts to make sense," she says. "These stations are always looking for high-quality non-fiction products that are created to evoke a dialogue that is in the public interest." PBS funds POV.

Another alternative she says, is the United States' library system, which contains over 17,000 outlets nationwide, and would make a good distribution venue for a non-fiction documentary filmmaker. However, getting into the system, she admits, can be a daunting task for someone just starting out, but not impossible. But the key to getting your product into any venue, she points out, is doing the research before attempting to establish a contact and understanding the network's policies. "Map out a plan of action and submit a proposal that is appropriate to the work being sought and produced at the specific entity. Knowing your target and being prepared is half the battle".

López, who worked as acting executive director at Deep Dish TV (a satellite network linking access producers and programmers nationwide) before migrating to POV, feels that her contributions can be made from the inside, where she is best positioned to effect positive change and open doors to other Latinos. In particular, she feels extremely pleased about the opportunities afforded by POV's Diverse Voices Project. The venue focuses on work produced by emerging filmmakers and minority who have not yet had a national PBS producing/directing credit.

Documentary filmmaker, John J. Valadéz, who recently produced a two-hour segment of the Matters of Race series, and whose work has been showcased nationally, puts the focus squarely on the filmmaker. "The signs in the public sector are not too encouraging," he says. "Aside from a hand full like Hector Galán, Paul Espinosa, Lourdes Portilla, and Joseph Tavares, there aren't many Latinos working in the documentary filmmaking field. But that's because there are not many Latino producers with extensive resumes trying to break into the field. Another challenge is trying to convince the public broadcast sector that the Latino experience is the American experience, and that it's more than just fitting it into special interest time slots during Hispanic Heritage Month. So it's up to us to get our skills up the task at hand and begin to think about our vocation as a business as much as art. And as a business, no one is going to just hand it to us - we have to be prepared to make our collective projects profitable endeavors - and that's how the doors will finally swing open for us."

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Comparable to the pronounced resurgence that African-American cinema enjoyed in the early 1980's and 1990s, spearhead by such filmmakers as Spike Lee and John Singleton, respectively, the current Latino film revitalization is being nurtured to ensure that it develops with an eye on the future and avoids the pains and pitfalls of the past. The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), an industry organization boosting over 500 members among its ranks, is actively working to create the infrastructure and support system for today's emergent Latino filmmaker.

"We are creating a stable landscape, a community, where Latino filmmakers can fine tune their craft, gain access to the industry, and network with other Latino filmmakers across the country," says Cynthia López, who is the current chairperson for NALIP. "Our goal is to ensure that Latinos are working in soap operas and sitcoms, as directors and animators, and that our images and stories are reflected on both the big and small screen. The message is simple - 'were here, we're experienced and we're available.'"

NALIP, whose mission is to promote the advancement, development and funding of Latino/Latina filmmakers, fosters these goals by hosting skills-specific workshops that address the needs of its regional chapters, including screenwriting, lighting, proposal/grant-writing. Seeking to establish and solidify long-term industry relationships, chapters coordinate meet-and-greet sessions where the membership base can openly network with studio executives and film festival directors. To date, NALIP has collaborated on events with NYILFF, IFP, AHA, WNET, and WNET/LINC, POV, HBO Latino, LPB, AIVF, The Public Theater, The Sundance Channel, and Anthology Film Archives, among others.

Moctezuma, who also sits on the organization's Board of Directors and spearheads its Advocacy Committee, says that the underlying strategy is to educate both the filmmaker and the movie-going public about the validity of Latino movies as a viable product. "By creating a shared interest across the board, we provide both the short- and long-term platform for a true Latino film renaissance."

John Valadéz, who admits that one of his dreams is to break into the production realm of National Geographic, and who is a NALIP member from New York, underscores the sentiment: "The really good news is that as a result of NALIP, people are now willing to collaborate on seeking funding, critiquing each others work on a positive level and creating the support network that will provide the long-term dividends -- the new wave renaissance that's being talked about. And that's empowering."

NALIP will hold its forth annual producer's conference from November 7th-10th in San Antonio, Texas.

WAITING FOR THE OTHER SHOE TO DROP
With an estimated buying power of $380 billion and an exploding population, the nation's 30 million Latinos certainly have monetary clout. But the question remains can Latinos translate this spending power into a cottage industry that caters to its cultural and entertainment needs? The answer at the moment seems very positive. After Spy Kids grossed $112,950,721 in ticket sales, placing it among the list of "Top Grossing Movies of All Time at the USA Box Office," according to imdb.com (putting it in between Eddie Murphy's Dr. Dolittle 2 and the John Travolta / Bruce Willis action thriller, Face Off), both pundits and Hollywood eyes are waiting with great anticipation to see how this sequel performs at the box office.

Latinos have been an integral part of the development of Hollywood and television for the past 100 years. And, as audiences begin to flock to their local theaters across the U.S. in greater numbers to see the latest Latino film, for many Hispanics throughout the nation looking to get into the business, the sound they'll hear at the register will just be música to their ears.

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Edwin Pagán is a writer, filmmaker and cultural activist living in New York City. This article was commissioned by the Association of Hispanic Arts for their Summer 2002 edition of ¡AHA! Hispanic Arts News.