- Cultural Diversity Awareness -
According to IMDb, 7 films (out of a total of 754 American films) were released in the USA in 2010, made in the Spanish language :
- Old Cats (2010/Pedro Peirano, Sebastián Silva/Chile/USA)
- Amexica (2010/Ron Krauss/USA)
- Un buen día (2010/Nicolás Del Boca/USA/Argentina)
- Señora Maestra (2010/Ricardo Perez-Roulet/USA)
- Plata o Plomo (2010/John Human/Colombia/USA)
- Brujeria Fantasma (2010/Rod Lopez/Dominican Rep./USA)
- Sueños 2 (2010/Elias Cabrera, Victoria Zapata/Ecuador/USA)
Admissions of Mexican films released on the USA market : less than 0.5% (since this is the entire share of the Rest of the World)
I wish there was more precise datas on Mexican films (number of releases, admission share, number of screens, number of weeks of releases...) available online...
* * *
USA population (2010) :
Source : CIA Factbook
Although Caucasians make up the majority of the population and moviegoers (141 million), they represent a lower proportion of ticket sales, down to 56% of tickets in 2010, compared to 60% in 2009. Hispanics are more likely to go to movies. In 2010, 43 million Hispanic moviegoers purchased 351 million movie tickets, up from 37 million moviegoers and 300 million tickets in 2009.
This means that the hispanic population within the USA doesn't watch more foreign movies from Latin America than the rest of the population, otherwise the share of foreign films would be closer to 26%, and if caucasians would watch Latin American movies too, this share would be superior to 26%. The sad thing is that the multiculturalism of the American melting-pot flocks to Hollywood movies, and doesn't care about the cinema made by their country of origin/ancesters. The share of foreign films in the USA, that are not European, and not from Canada, amounts to 0.5%.
If these foreign films were really bad, I would understand this attitude, but most of the time there are films made abroad that are as good as Hollywood flicks and even better than the formulaic teen-centric entertainment. Especially in Latin America, countries like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil have made enormous progress in the production of quality entertainment. Not to mention the world-class quality of art films (although reserved for a smaller margin of the movie goer population), in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay...
If these foreign films were really bad, I would understand this attitude, but most of the time there are films made abroad that are as good as Hollywood flicks and even better than the formulaic teen-centric entertainment. Especially in Latin America, countries like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil have made enormous progress in the production of quality entertainment. Not to mention the world-class quality of art films (although reserved for a smaller margin of the movie goer population), in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay...
USA-Mexico border 2008
Selection of recent outstanding Latin-American or Spanish films (with their USA release) :
- Alamar (2009/Pedro González-Rubio/Mexico) [Limited release 14 July 2010 = 3 screens]
- La Mujer Sin Cabeza (2008/Lucrecia Martel/Argentina/France/Italy/Spain) [Limited release 19 Aug 2009 = 3 screens]
- La Piel Que Habito (2011/Pedro Almodovar/Spain) [Limited release 14 Oct 2011 = 21 screens]
- La nana (2009/Sebastián Silva/Chile/Mexico) [Limited release 19 Oct 2009 = 19 screens]
- El hombre de al lado (2009/Mariano Cohn/Gastón Duprat/Argentina) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- Medianeras (2011/Gustavo Taretto/Argentina/Spain/Germany) Release 26 Oct 2011
- Abrazos rotos (2009/Pedro Almadovar/Spain) [Released 20 Nov 2009 = 202 screens max]
- Año Bisiesto (2010/Michael Rowe/Mexico) [Limited release 24 June 2011 = 1 screen]
- Gigante (2009/Adrián Biniez/Uruguay/Argentina/Germany/Spain/Netherlands) Released 9 Dec 2009
- Dioses (2008/Josué Méndez/Peru/Argentina/France/Germany) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- Ilusiones ópticas (2009/Cristián Jiménez/Chile/France/Portugal) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- La Ventana (2008/Carlos Sorin/Argentina/Spain) [Released 6 May 2009 = 2 screens]
- Leonera (2008/Pablo Trapero/Argentina/South Korea/Brazil) [Limited release 3 July 2009 = 1 screen]
- La vida loca (2008/Poveda/Spain/Mexico/France) DOC ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- La teta asustada (2009/Claudia Llosa/Spain/Peru) [Limited release 29 August 2010 = 2 screens]
- Carancho (2010/Pablo Trapero/Argentina/Chile/France/South Korea) [Limited release 11 Feb 2011 = 5 screens]
- Lake Tahoe (2008/Fernando Eimbcke/Mexico/Japan/USA) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- La Llamada (2010/Stefano Pasetto/Argentina/Italy) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- La Mirada Invisible (2010/Diego Lerman/Argentina/France/Spain) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- Amorosa Soledad (2008/Carranza/Galardi/Argentina) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- Revolución (2010/Mariana Chenillo/Fernando Eimbcke/Amat Escalante/Gael García Bernal/Rodrigo García/Diego Luna/Gerardo Naranjo /Rodrigo Plá/Carlos Reygadas/Patricia Riggen/Mexico) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- Norteado (2009/Rigoberto Pérezcano/Mexico/Spain) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- Women Are Heroes (2010/JR/France) DOC ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- Biutiful (2010/Alejandro González Iñárritu/Mexico/Spain) [Release 29 Dec 2010 = 191 screens max]
- El Niño Pez (2009/Lucía Puenzo/Argentina/France/Spain) [Direct-to-DVD 26 July 2011]
- Navidad (2009/Sebastián Lelio/Chile/France) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
- El infierno (2010/Luis Estrada/Mexico) ***NOT RELEASED IN USA***
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4 commentaires:
"Pantelion Films, a Hollywood-based studio that focuses on Hispanic entertainment, said that it had acquired a new film called “Casa de Mi Padre,” starring Mr. Ferrell, Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, directed by Matt Piedmont and filmed in Spanish.
In a news release Pantelion Films described the movie as an “homage to classic westerns and telenovelas.”"
Distributor Says ‘Sí’ to Spanish-Language Will Ferrell Film
By Dave Itzkoff (NYT; 3 November 2011)
series of documentaries on minorities Black in America; Latino in America; Muslim in America : "In America" CNN
CNN's Black in America (13 Nov 2011): Soledad O'Brien in Conversation with Diversity@Google
The Promotion of U.S. Latino Films
by Henry Puente B.A., M.A. (The University of Texas at Austin; August 2004) [PDF]
Hispanic-Americans are among the US's keenest film-goers, but Hollywood offers them little more than stereotypes
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