Filmmaker Puts Hispanic Stamp on Hollywood Productions
New film series opens Friday at West LA NuArt.
By EGP & EFE News Services
Mexican American movie producer Moctesuma Esparza has more than twenty films with a Hispanic theme on his resume. But the filmmaker does not just make movies, he also owns a production and film distribution company and a chain of 30 movie theaters, two important links to ensure that audiences have access to his and similarly themed films by both American and international filmmakers.
Esparza says he fell in love with films as a child.
“Movies are a powerful thing, it affects us on a level that we cannot understand, in the subconscious level, because from there we take our attitudes, ” Esparza told EFE during a recent interview.
“When films portray a community in a negative way or exclude us, it hurts our children, it hurts our self-esteem, it hurts our possibilities in life,” said the filmmaker who has produced films for several Hollywood film companies.
Esparza, who was born in East Los Angeles in 1949, says he was deeply influenced by his father, a political refugee. “On his days off, which where on Mondays, we always used to go to the movies … to watch movies from Mexico, Latin Movies, Mexican movies in Spanish,” he said.
In 1968 he participated in the protests led by Chicano students who walked out of their classrooms in Los Angeles, and years later, he was inspired to retell the story in the 2006 HBO film “Walkout.”
Esparza studied theater, film and television at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
“My first production was a documentary,” recalls Esparza. It is about the murder of Los Angeles Times reporter Rubén Salazar by County Sheriffs during the Aug. 29, 1970 Chicano Moratorium that ended in a riot and the burning of parts of East Los Angeles, he said.
His film credits include the 1997 Warner Brothers box office hit “Selena,” and the 1993 critically-acclaimed “Gettysburg.”
Esparza’s production and distribution company, Maya Entertainment, specializes in Spanish language or Hispanic themed films, such as “Sleep Dealer,” the 2008 Sundance Waldo Salt award winner for Best Script and the Alfred P. Sloan Award and “Amexicano” (2007), featuring actress and singer Jennifer Peña and actor Manny Peréz.
Starting Friday, July 17 at the Landmark NuArt in West Los Angeles, Maya Entertainment and Blockbuster will debut a national groundbreaking Latino film series.
Among the eight films to be featured is “The Line,” which centers around a veteran assassin as he tracks down Pelon, the elusive head of the Salazar Crime Cartel. The film stars Andy Garcia (Ocean’s 13), Ray Liotta (Goodfellas), Armand Assante (Mambo Kings), Esai Morales (Fast Food Nation) and Danny Trejo (Grindhouse).
Other films include: “Bajo La Sal;” “Vicious Circlel;” “Bad Guys;” “Sultanes del Sur” (Southern Sultans); “Cronicas Chilangas” (Chilangas Chronicles); “Once Upon a Time in Rio;” and “Máncora,” a tender and pulsating road-trip drama.
Esparza has received more than 150 recognitions for his work as a filmmaker, including his 1977 Oscar nomination for Best Film Short, for “Agueda Martínez: Our People, Our Country.”
Esparza said Hollywood has not done a good job of portraying or hiring Hispanics.
“We know that Hispanics (are 15.1 percent of the population in USA) and represent more than 30 percent of the total US box office revenue, but in terms of employment, we are only one percent in Hollywood,” he said.
More information about the film series, including dates and show times, can be found at www.landmarktheatres.com.
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July 16, 2009 Copyright © 2010 Eastern Group Publications, Inc.
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[...] compañía de producción y distribución de Moctesuma Esparza, Maya Entertainment, se ha aliado con Blockbuster para presentar simultáneamente en ocho ciudades [...]
ithink i’ve seen one of these films, it was great. where can i purchase them?