Latinos In The Industry eNewsletter

January 17, 2008

La Misma Luna Preview Screening at NALIP Conference 9 – Friday, March 7

There was not a dry eye in the house for the Sundance premiere of Patricia Riggen’s poignant, funny, wonderfully entertaining film LA MISMA LUNA. Written and produced by NALIP mentor Ligiah Villalobos, Riggen’s first feature relates the story of young Carlitos (Adrian Alonso, VOCES INNOCENTES), a Mexican child who, faced with the recent death of his grandmother, embarks on a moving journey to reunite with his mother (LPA fellow Kate del Castillo), an immigrant laboring in the mansions of the Los Angeles elite. With a star-studded Mexican cast including America Ferrara, Mexican comedy star Eugenio Derbez, Mario Almada, Jesse Garcia and a cameo by “Los Tigres del Norte,” LA MISMA LUNA is a rare gem of a film that, in the spirit of true drama has the audience laughing and crying simultaneously.

Don’t miss the sneak pre-release screening on Friday night, March 7, part of the great Conference 9 program. The evening includes a special case study with the writer/ producer, director, casting director and key actors. Register online at www.nalip.org for this and many other wonderful weekend events at NALIP Conference 9 in Dana Point, CA. Questions? Call NALIP at 310-395-8880

LATV Names Luca Bentivoglio VP of Programming

LATV, the nation's first bilingual music/entertainment network distributed via digital multicast, announced today that it had tapped long-time industry programming executive Luca Bentivoglio as vice president, programming for LATV. In his new position, Mr. Bentivoglio will report to President Danny Crowe and will be responsible for all LATV content and program scheduling.

"Luca has experience at every level of programming and production. He's produced shows, developed programs and programmed networks -- you name it, he's done it and done it well," said Mr. Crowe. "He brings to LATV a breadth of experience, knowledge and talent that will enhance our network as we continue with our national rollout. We are very happy to have Luca working with us."

Prior to joining LATV, Mr. Bentivoglio was president of the international division of Educational Adventures where he developed Latino themes and marketing strategies for The Danger Rangers, an animated children's series on PBS. Formerly, he was the executive director for Latino Public Broadcasting. There, Mr. Bentivoglio managed the non-profit organization that funds the development and production of Latino programming for PBS and created the award-winning Voces series.

Previously, Mr. Bentivoglio was the general manager for The Warner Channel in Venezuela where he supervised operations, marketing, programming and affiliate sales, helping it to become the number-one family channel in the region. Prior to his tenure in Latin America, Mr. Bentivoglio was VP, Programming and Production for Telemundo Network where he raised prime-time ratings by more than 100 percent.
For nearly 10 years, Mr. Bentivoglio helmed Luca Bentivoglio Productions, the largest Hispanic production company in the U.S., providing multiple long-running series to both Univision and Telemundo, creating award-winning programs and producing feature films.

Mr. Bentivoglio began his career at WJNU in New Jersey, collaborating on the U.S. launch of the musical group Menudo. He then became VP, Marketing and Promotions at Univision Network in New York, creating the network's first marketing and promotions department.

Sol Dance 2008 - Latino Film Rocks Utah (Park City)

Sol Dance Film Festival is a 3 day event, January 20-22, 2008 taking place at the Anheuser-Busch Filmmaker Discovery House in Park City, Utah. All events take place at Bear Path Lodge, Bud Light Filmmaker Discovery House, 5425 Boblsed Blvd., Park City, UT. The opening night event is January 20th at 7:30pm, featuring master of ceremony Cheech Marin. RSVP at www.soldancefilmfest.com

Several NALIP members have films screening in Sol Dance, including Shawna Baca, Katrina Elias, Fanny Veliz, Veronica Caicedo, Iris Almaraz, and Adam Schlachter. For more information and a full schedule, visit the Sol Dance MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/rocksoldance07

NALIPsters Invited to Cinema Slam Park City Free Screening & Fiesta (Park City)

Get caught up in the hoopla! Cinema Slam Park City is a short film screening available FOR FREE on Main Street during all the Park City madness. We are a group of ambitious independent filmmakers, some of us NALIPsters, who choose not to wait on Sundance and Slamdance to grant us celebrity. We're greenlighting ourselves! A collection of 20 short narrative and documentary films will show Tuesday, Jan 22 and Thursday, Jan 24 from 9am-1:30pm, on the Second Floor of the Main St. Mall, 333 Main St. (across from the Egyptian Theater).

Several Latino shorts are included in the program, including Sold in America by NALIP member Chelo Alvarez.

BONUS: You are invited to our CINEMA SLAM FIESTA!
See the complete Schedule of Films and Party info at: http://www.cinemaslam.net

Call for Entries: Seattle International Film Festival

The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is now accepting film submissions for the 34th annual Festival, May 22-June 15, 2008. Consistently rated as one of the top North American festivals, SIFF screens more than 400 films from 60 countries over 25 days. $23,000 IN CASH PRIZES are given in six competitive categories: New American Cinema, New Director's Showcase, Documentary Features; and Short Film Narrative, Documentary, and Animation.

All selected films are eligible for the Golden Space Needle Audience Award. Entry forms and eligibility guidelines are available at http://www.seattlefilm.org

Final deadline is February 1, 2008. For more information, email entries@seattlefilm.org. Submit today!

Call for Entries: HollyShorts Film Festival

The 2008 HollyShorts Film Festival (HSFF) announces the call for entries for short films. Submission forms can be completed directly online by visiting www.hollyshorts.com or by submitting on Withoutabox directly at www.withoutabox.com/login/4655. The 4th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival will be held August 7-10 with screenings, events and parties in Hollywood, CA.

All submissions must be 30 minutes or less. Deadlines to submit U.S. and International short films for the 2008 HollyShorts Film Festival are:

- February 15, 2008 - EARLY SUBMISSION DEADLINE
- April 11, 2008 - OFFICIAL DEADLINE
- May 16, 2008 - LATE DEADLINE

Completed U.S. and international short films may be submitted and must arrive in office by February 15 for early consideration and a reduced submission fee. Complete information and eligibility requirements are available on HollyShorts.com. All films submitted for competition are also considered for participation in non-competitive categories of Opening Night Premieres, HollyShorts International Suite and the HollyShorts official closing event.

The third annual HollyShorts Film Festival awarded over $26,000 in products and services prizes to filmmakers. HollyShorts Film Festival awards prizes for short films in the following areas: Overall Best Short Film, Best Student Short, Best Cinematography, Best Drama, Best Documentary, Best Animation, Best Narrative, Best Comedy, Best International, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Thriller, Best Music Video, Future Filmmaker and much more. All films are eligible for Audience Choice.

The submission link and complete information regarding eligibility and entry rules for the 2008 HollyShorts Film Festival are available on the HollyShorts Film Festival website at www.hollyshorts.com. Information is also available through the HollyShorts hotline at 818-760-9897, by email to staff@hollyshorts.com. For sponsorship information, please email admin@hollyshorts.com with your query.

TWN Production Workshop Extends Deadline to Feb. 1 (NYC)

The application deadline for the TWN Film and Video Production Workshop has been extended to Friday, February 1st, 2008 due to a discrepancy in the original deadline.

This six month production workshop covers both 16mm and digital video production, from preproduction to shooting and editing. Highly selective, students meet in the evenings and shoot on the weekends. Aimed at emerging artists from communities of color, low income and other marginalized groups, this workshop is entering its 31st year! Graduates include feature directors Grace Lee (The Grace Lee Project), Alice Wu (Saving Face), Byron Hurt (Beyond Beats and Rhymes) and many more. The deadline for the 2008 session applications is Friday, February 1st and classes start in February. Letters of recommendation can be mailed separately. For more information, please visit www.twn.org

Third World Newsreel
545 8th Avenue, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10018
workshop@twn.org
(212) 947-9277 ext. 304
www.twn.org

Volunteer for the San Diego Latino Film Festival (SD)

We are heading full steam into the Fifteenth Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival! We would love to have your help in making this 15th anniversary edition of the festival extra special.

There are many opportunities for you to get involved, whether you have a single afternoon, weekends, or a block of time during the work day. Just come on by the office! We have extended our office hours to fit almost everyone's schedule:

Mondays 8:00 - 5:00
Tuesdays 8:00 - 7:00
Wednesdays 8:00 - 5:00
Thursdays 8:00 - 5:00
Fridays 8:00 - 5:00
Saturdays 12:00 - 4:00

If you plan on helping during the festival, we ask that you attend one of our required orientations. Mark you calendars now, these are the dates:

January 29 5:30 - 7:00 @ Media Arts Center
February 19 5:30 - 7:00 @ Media Arts Center
March 3 5:30 - 7:00 @ UltraStar Cinemas

Doing Your Doc - Atlanta

DOCS MAKERS IN THE SOUTHEAST: Don't miss "Doing Your Doc" in ATLANTA
Jan 25 - 27, 2008
DAEL Lab at GSU.
Details on the NALIP website.

Alex Rivera
NALIP member's feature "Sleep Dealer" in Sundance

NALIP founding member Alex Rivera's directorial debut Sleep Dealer is one of just 16 feature films in the dramatic competition of this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Screening dates and times are:
- Sat. January 19, 8:30pm, Racquet Club, Park City
- Sun. January 20, 8:30am, Racquet Club, Park City
- Mon. January 21, 3:00pm, Screening Room, Sundance Resort
- Wed. January 23, 12:15pm, Eccles Theatre, Park City
- Wed. January 23, 6:30pm, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, SLC
- Thu. January 24, 2:30pm, Racquet Club, Park City

Lewis Beale wrote about Alex and his film in an article for the Daily News, reproduced here:

Near future, the Mexican-American border. Anti-immigrant initiatives have succeeded in shutting down the frontier to illegal crossings, but that doesn’t mean cheap Mexican labor isn’t still working in American farms and factories. Thanks to the wonders of technology, laborers can now hook up their nervous systems to Internet connections that control robots that work in El Norte.

That’s the bizarre and intriguing premise of “Sleep Dealer,” a movie by New York-based filmmaker Alex Rivera that has been accepted as one of 16 films in the dramatic competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, beginning today in Park City, Utah.

A combination of science fiction and politicized storytelling, the movie is also a way for the multicultural Rivera - his dad’s from Peru, his mom from Brooklyn - to deal with his own upbringing.

“The concept came from my strange youth,” says the 34-year-old Rivera. “I grew up loving science fiction, but also with an immigrant dad who never let me forget most of the world is not like the U.S., it’s divided between rich and poor, north and south.

“So when I started to make films, I was interested in my family’s story, and the experience of immigrants, and wanted to use the flair and fun and the sexy visuals of films like ‘Blade Runner’ to talk about these issues.”

Rivera first started working on the script of “Sleep Dealer” - the title refers to workers who get so tired, they collapse on the job - about 10 years ago. In 2000, it came to the attention of the Sundance Institute - which nurtures young talent - and Rivera was invited to its writers’ lab to polish the screenplay, and then to Sundance’s directors’ lab. At the latter he met Andrew Bergman, a producer who worked on the screenplay with him and then helped Rivera find financing for the picture.

Rivera, whose background is as a digital media artist and documentary filmmaker, says the toughest parts about making his first feature-length production were working with a large crew - 100 support personnel versus the one-person crew he’d had on his last documentary - and finding the language for the main character, a young Mexican who works in one of the film’s high-tech factories.

“A lot of the film is told inside his memories,” Rivera says. “You’re constantly going inside his mind to look at the world as he sees it. I wanted to be inside him.”

With more than 450 visual effects shots, “Sleep Dealer,” which is primarily in Spanish, has been a huge undertaking, and a week before the festival was set to open, Rivera was still working on a final version. Still, Rivera believes “Sleep Dealer” made the Sundance cut because people have responded to “the originality of the concept, and the visual world of it, which is very rich, colorful and expansive. It starts in the desert and ends in the city.”

Ultimately, however, the film is an age-old tale told through a sci-fi lens.

“Almost everyone in the Latino community comes from a family that has a story of immigration,” Rivera says. “This is an attempt to use science fiction to look at that reality.

“We hear so much noise about shutting the borders, and in my film, that’s a starting point. What if that happened? I thought the nightmare fantasy is maybe what America wants in some ways — to use the labor, but not have the person."

Faith Radle
Managing band featured on Latino USA

LPA fellow and mentor Faith Radle manages the band Girl in a Coma, which was recently featured on the radio show Latino USA. The show's website writes:

Not all Latinas celebrate their fifteenth birthday with a Quinceanera waltz...meet some girls who make their societal debut to a much different sound. That sound is from the group Girl in a Coma, whose 19-year-old lead singer has been in the band since she was 13 years old. The young Latina three piece started out playing local shows around San Antonio, Texas and slowly built up a solid and loyal fan base through constant touring.

Listen to the segment online here.

UN to Create $100 Mil Film Fund
(Variety) - The United Nations is backing a $100 million film fund aimed at combating stereotypes in movies. Participant Prods., Summit Entertainment, ICM and YouTube are all believed to have signed on as partners to the fund, which has already secured investment of $10 million. FULL STORY

Boom Looms in Sundance
(Variety) - An abundance of films and buyers, combined with Hollywood's labor unrest, is fueling talk of the most robust Sundance market in years. FULL COVERAGE

Interview With "Sleep Dealer" Director Alex Rivera
(indieWIRE) - Featured in the Dramatic Competition program at Sundance '08, Alex Rivera's directorial debut, "Sleep Dealer" is set in a near future world full of chaos. This is part of a series of interviews, conducted via email, profiling first-time feature directors who have films screening at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. FULL INTERVIEW

Visit the NALIP Job Opportunities page for all the latest listings.

Spanish-speaking Post Production Producer/Supervisor
International television production company seeks Post Production Producer/ Supervisor for Spanish speaking kids show. FULL JOB DESCRIPTION

Broadcast Operations Traffic Coordinator at SíTV
SíTV is currently looking for a Broadcast Operations Traffic Coordinator to join our winning Broadcast Operations team. FULL JOB DESCRIPTION

Editor
Alex Mendoza
Alex Mendoza & Associates
AMARTE Design & Digital Printing
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626-614-8277

Co-Editor
NALIP
1323 Lincoln Blvd., #220
Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-395-8880
membership@nalip.info

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The Latinos in the Industry e-Newsletter is a free service provided by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) with the generous assistance of Alex Mendoza & Associates (AMA) in an “as-is” basis for the education and information of users only. NALIP and/or AMA, their principal(s), employees, agents or representatives shall under no circumstances be liable for any loss or damage, including, but not limited to, loss of profits, goodwill or indirect or consequential loss arising out of any use of or inaccuracies in the information. All warranties expressed or implied are excluded to the fullest extent permissible by law. All comments and postings, including those by the Editor, are the responsibility of those individuals posting and no endorsement by NALIP and/or AMA should be inferred. Referral links and individual e-mail forwarding are permitted. NALIP reserves the right to withdraw or delete information or to discontinue this service at any time. All quoted, linked and/or referred information, as well as all copyrights and trademarks, are the property of their respective holders, used here under license and/or “fair-use” rules. © NALIP.