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Mexican Movie Breakthrough
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Valley DVD producer rolls out quality Latin films unseen in U.S.
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by Randy Cordova |
Nick de la Torre/
The Arizona Republic
Leslie Haas (right) formed Desert Mountain
Media last year. Her staff is (from left)
Denise Birger, Mic Browne, Carlos Gonzales
and Laura Davis.
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The Arizona Republic
Dec. 6, 2002
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The head of a Valley company either has great foresight or great luck. Or both.
Mexican cinema is enjoying a high profile in the United States these days. Both Y Tu Mamá También and Amores Perros became art-house hits, with El Crimen del Padre Amaro shaping up as another. Mamá director Alfonso Cuaron was even tapped to helm the next installment in the Harry Potter series.
That's where Leslie Haas comes in. Last year, she formed Desert Mountain Media, a Phoenix company devoted to niche markets in the DVD arena.
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The company launches its first title this week: the 1997 Mexican import Cilantro y Perejil, which inaugurates the firm's Latin Cinema Collection. The series is devoted to Spanish-language films, with all titles initially hailing from south of the border.
"There was nothing coming out on DVD from Mexico and Latin America," says Haas, a former general manager with Sony's DVD Center in Los Angeles. "It was a niche that was not being addressed, and we decided to address it."
She makes it sound like a simple, logical decision. But if it's so obvious, how come it hasn't been done before?
Granted, some Mexican films make a big impact in the United States: Like Water for Chocolate was a critical and commercial triumph almost a decade ago.
But dozens of other films popular in Mexico never reach the United States despite achieving widespread success in their homeland. Desert Mountain is obtaining the rights to these films in order to reproduce them on DVDs for the American home video market.
"There are a lot of films in Mexico that are not commercialized and marketed in the United States," says Cecilia Rosales, executive director of the Mexican Cultural Center in downtown Phoenix.
She points to one of her favorites: Angel de Fuego,a 1992 allegory about a teenage circus performer. The movie was featured at the Cannes Film Festival but has never been widely seen in the United States.
Coincidentally, Desert Mountain will release Angel de Fuego next month. Like all of the firm's releases, it will be subtitled in English.
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| DVD releases |
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The following Spanish-language titles will be released by Desert Mountain Media. All have a list price of $19.99 and feature English subtitles.
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In stores now:
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Cilantro y Perejil: Contemporary comedy about a couple whose marriage is in crisis. In stores Jan. 7 |
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Angel de Fuego: The tale of Alma, a teenage trapeze artist and fire breather, who is kicked out of the circus when she becomes pregnant. |
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El Imperio de la Fortuna: A Mexican peasant tries to make a fortune through cockfighting. An adaptation of a Juan Rulfo story.
In stores Feb. 11 |
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Tivoli: A plan to tear down Mexico City's famous Tivoli Theater meets with resistance in this lavish production. |
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El Costo de la Vida: A middle-class couple who lose their jobs in Mexico's poor economy turn to robbery. In stores Feb. 25 |
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Estas Ruinas Que Ves: A comedic romp starring the big-name cast of Fernando Luján, Blanca Guerra and Pedro Armendáriz Jr. A college professor meets up with an ex-student, who's now engaged to another man. |
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"It's an important film in contemporary Mexican filmmaking," Rosales says. "And with the subtitling, they are showing it's not just for the ethnic community."
Indeed, as opposed to the Spanish-language exploitation flicks that fill video racks, Desert Mountain's titles are geared to both Spanish and English speakers. Bonus features are presented in both languages, as are menu screens.
The video presentation also is better than what a typical Mexican film receives. The quality is first-class: vibrant colors and crisp audio, with some titles in letterbox format. Even the packaging, designed in Phoenix by Carlos Gonzales, is outstanding.
There are some bugs. The English subtitles on Cilantro y Perejil have awkward misspellings. But Haas says quality already has improved with Desert Mountain's January titles, Angel de Fuego and El Imperio de la Fortuna.
Even in terms of artistic quality, both January releases are more adult and compelling than Cilantro, a rather slight comedy about relationships that was a box-office winner in its homeland.
"We're coming in with foreign films that would compete with foreign films from any country," Haas says. "These films are for the American audience, not just the Latino audience."
Ruben Beltran, Mexico's consul general in Arizona, is a movie buff who saw many Spanish-language classics while he was growing up in Mexico City. He thinks Desert Mountain can help introduce the unique flavor and style of Mexican films to new viewers.
"Mexican films often portray in a very clear and sometimes very crude manner some of the essence of Mexican culture," he says. "They also show a society which is very diverse but is also more open and free."
Beltran also thinks that Desert Mountain may benefit from exquisite timing. "It's a snowballing thing," he says. "Ten years from now, there may be a huge market for Mexican and Latin American movies to be embraced by the public at large, with the caveat that the quality must be there. If we don't have the quality, the momentum will be lost."
Right now, at least, the general public seems more open to films from Mexico. "Look at the crowds at Camelview," Rosales says, referring to the Harkins theater in Scottsdale that specializes in foreign and art films.
One simple reason for the rising profile of Mexican films is that more of the U.S. population is of Hispanic origin.
Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the States. This year, their buying power reached $428 billion, a 25 percent increase in two years, according to American Demographics.
Daniel Malaguilla, Desert Mountain's vice president of sales and marketing, also believes that recent migrants are holding onto their culture more tightly than did earlier generations.
"More original immigrants were happy to eat the hamburger," he says. "Later immigrants said, 'The hamburger is OK, but I'd like to put some salsa on it.'
"The melting pot that this country used to be is no longer. We now have Americans who don't want to assimilate. The melting pot isn't always happening."
Desert Mountain is there for them, too. Their titles won't just be available at amazon.com or Best Buy or the larger rental outlets, but also in the mom-and-pop video stores and discotecas that dot heavily Hispanic neighborhoods.
"The Hispanic population is not only becoming larger, it's becoming more sophisticated," Malaguilla says. "They want high-quality stuff. They want stuff that is good."
Rosales agrees.
"It's so easy to get exploitation videos," she says. "But the community really wants quality entertainment in their own language."
That's where Haas has that marvelous timing. If Desert Mountain is as on-the-pulse as it appears to be, Haas and her staff of eight could be sitting on a gold mine.
"We're omniscient," Haas says with a laugh.
Malaguilla is more straightforward.
"We are attacking a market that is growing phenomenally in numbers, in sophistication. It's not just fortuitous.
"You don't see Leslie coming out doing Japanese or Vietnamese DVDs, do you?"
Es verdad.
Reach the reporter at (602) 444-8849.
Find this article at:
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/smartliving/articles/1206mexicandvds06new0.html |
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