There may be some superstitions about this being their 13th year, but the folks behind the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival still think they're pretty lucky.
While the recession has forced organizers to lop four days off the usual 10-day showcase of movies by and about Latinos, it hasn't curtailed the imagination of filmmakers or the quality of their work.
"Creatively, we always try to be better, and I believe that this year we will be better," said Marlene Dermer, the festival's executive director.
"It's always been a challenge, and somehow that's getting tougher," she added, referring to the impact of the recession on sponsorship-dependent film festivals. "But I think this festival is just a small indication of what artists can do to inspire us to go on."
Indeed, the 13th LALIFF, which runs Sunday through Friday at the Mann Chinese theater complex at Hollywood & Highland, offers an impressive program.
Sunday's opening-night gala is the West Coast premiere of Pedro Almodovar's newest feature, "Broken Embraces," starring 2008 Oscar winner Penelope Cruz. Such internationally acclaimed films as Chile's "The Maid," Uruguay's "Gigante" and Argentina's "Anita" are also on the schedule.
And there are many other carefully selected features, shorts and documentaries from throughout Latin America, Spain and the United States. Even countries such as Japan and Denmark are represented.
"Latinos are everywhere, man!" joked actor-director Edward James Olmos, a co-founder of the festival.
And if he has his way, that "everywhere" will include outer space: Olmos hopes to show the upcoming TV movie he directed, "Battlestar Galactica: The Plan," on one of the festival's big screens before its DVD release at the end of the month.
"The criteria for our festival is anything directed or written by a Latino, or a Latino story that could be made by anybody," explained Dermer, a Peruvian who moved to New Orleans as a teenager.
As wide a picture as LALIFF presents, however, its main focus inevitably remains on Latin American cinema. And the news seems to be good from some of those countries, where production costs are generally so low that an international monetary meltdown has little impact.
"The amount of film production in Chile has increased remarkably in the last four years," noted "The Maid's" director Sebastian Silva, whose movie won the world cinema jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival and starts its commercial run in L.A. on Oct. 23.
"That's thanks to technological progress and how easy that makes it to make films. But productions in Chile never go higher than $1 million. In America, that would be considered less than independent filmmaking.
"And I think the quality of Chilean films is getting better," Silva added. "There are different stories and a lot of new voices, and Chilean filmmakers have been making noise for the past few years at well-known film festivals."
Silva also pointed out that companies such as Mexico's Mantarraya Producciones and Uruguay's Ctrl Z Films are encouraging serious artistic expression at a time when the rest of the world's film industries seems interested only in making bucks.
Which brings us back to the USA where, despite the Hollywood imperative to make movies as generically crowd-pleasing as possible, Dermer explained that the most vital, Latino-themed independent movement is going on right now.
This year's LALIFF boasts a half-dozen such titles, including the teen gang drama "Down for Life" (filmed at L.A.'s Locke High School), "La Mission" starring Benjamin Bratt and directed by his brother Peter, and the latest works from noted directors Leon Ichaso ("Paraiso") and Victor Nu ez ("Spoken Word").
Born in East L.A., Olmos sees such films as evidence that the long-awaited U.S. Latino commercial breakthrough, promised but never really established by such isolated hits as "La Bamba" and his own "Stand and Deliver," is closer than ever.
"It's just a matter of time before Latino film really pops and it becomes just as common as African-American cinema," Olmos said. "It's just inevitable."
Until then, there's the abbreviated but nonetheless riches-packed Latino Film Festival.
"This year, it was particularly competitive" for films seeking a slot in the festival, Dermer said.
"Due to the economic challenges facing the world, we're almost here by popular demand, to be quite honest. But we felt it was extremely important to have the festival and continue serving the community. This year, we had to reduce it by a few days - it's six instead of the usual 10 days."
Organizers hope the quality of offerings will attract big crowds.
"It's for everyone, not just Latinos," Olmos said. "The festival's watchword is to express culture at the highest level. I think people will have a wonderful time, everything's bilingual, so come out and enjoy."
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