gomez film

Blockbuster, the Dallas-based video rental outfit, has announced it will co-sponsor a new Latino film festival along with Maya Entertainment, according to Home Media magazine. Maya Entertainment is owned by famed film producer and director Moctesuma Esparza, who seems to have an uncanny knack for mixing business, art and politics. The festival is designed to help the video giant connect more with Latino consumers, says Blockbuster.

Maya and Blockbuster will also work together on a screenwriting competition called Project Goldenlight, whose winner will see their film produced by Maya Entertainment.

Gomez's take? The film festival is a fairly good idea, but we worry that the mission statement of "showcasing domestic and international" Latino films will serve to further perpetuate the stereotype that the nation's 40 million Latinos (most of whom were born here and speak English better than Tony Soprano) are somehow more foreign-like than other Americans.

Gomez also has a polite word of caution for any aspiring screenwriter who might hand over their work to Esparza, having had a dear friend who almost did likewise only to realize Esparza had included fine print that was not going to allow the writer to retain any credit or make any money. And you thought we didn't have our own little Tyler Perry? Pshaw.

Gomez would love to see a US Latino film festival focused entirely on domestic productions, in English, not only because that's where most of us live but also because that's where the money is. Once Hollywood proper sees the economic incentive to include more Latino projects in the mainstream, things will change; as long as we continue to be lumped in with foreign films, however, little will.