Home Media Magazine - January 13-19, 2007 - (Page 14)

Edited by Angelique Flores www.homemediamagazine.com COM I NG UP I FACETS VIDEO Jan. 29 releases the Argentinean drama Los Muertos (DVD $29.95). From its Zafra line, Facets will release the same day Mexico: The Frozen Revolution (DVD $29.95), from documentary filmmaker Raymundo Gleyzer, who was a major figure in the “Cinema Liberación” movement of the 1970s. I IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT has Esperando a Mi Bebé (DVD $14.99), the only DVD guide geared specifically for pregnant Latinas. Jan. 15 arrives the third volume in the popular lowrider DVD series “Cherry Ridez” (DVD $9.99). From the Grandes Telenovela line Feb. 5 comes Belinda (three-DVD $19.99). I LAGUNA PRODUCTIONS Jan. 22 releases the drama Cielo (DVD $24.95), starring up-and-coming actress Paulina Gaitan (Trade, Voces Inocentes) (see review, page 18). Feb. 12 (prebook Jan. 15) comes the urban drama The Price of the American Dream 2 (DVD $24.95), followed Feb. 26 (prebook Jan. 29) by the unedited first two seasons of the novela “Las Juanas” (eight-DVD $29.95), starring Martha Higadera, Ana Serradilla and Paola Nuñez. Top: Clemente; Right: Director Pablo Veliz I NEW LINE HOME ENTERTAINMENT March 18 (prebook Filming the Journey Director Pablo Veliz depicts an immigrant family’s struggle in ‘Clemente’ By Billy Gil t 25, Pablo Veliz can make you feel a tad lazy. “I started making films left and right,” said the young director about finishing his fourth movie and starting on a fifth. But for the moment, Veliz has coming to DVD Clemente, which streets Feb. 19 from Laguna Productions. The $24.95 DVD is in Spanish with English subtitles. A clip of behind-the-scenes footage can be seen on YouTube. com. Prebook is Jan. 22. Clemente’s titular character is loosely based on a man who crosses over the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to start a family and a new life. Years later, married with a daughter, the man is deported back to Mexico and tries to cross back once again to reunite with his family on the U.S. side. The film shifts focus to Clemente’s daughter, Dahlia, who pieces together what it means that her father is an illegal alien. Clemente, on the other hand, is seen trying to make it back to his family, in a brutal, real-time sequence of human response to conditions people face when trying to cross the border, such as extreme dehydration and hallucinations. Feb. 12) releases Love in the Time of Cholera (DVD $27.95). The DVD includes audio commentary from director Mike Newell, a making-of documentary and alternate/deleted scenes with optional audio commentary. I SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT Feb. 26 (prebook Jan. 24) bows Goya’s Ghosts, starring Natalie Portman, Stellan Sarsgård and Javier Bardem. The historical drama takes a look at the life of Spanish painter Francisco Goya and his relationship with his muse. The DVD includes a making-of featurette. “When I see people get up and walk out for a minute because the scene is so disturbing, that’s good to me,” Veliz said. “I grew up in the art world. One of the biggest lessons was that art is meant to disturb, to change, to move.” Clemente furthers the trajectory set by La Tragedia de Macario, Veliz’s acclaimed 2005 film based in part on a 2003 attempt to enter the United States from Mexico that ended in the deaths of 19 people. “Clemente … is kind of like the second part, of what happens when someone does make it into the United States,” Veliz said. Although grim, Veliz said his films seek to humanize things that occur every day. But in a growing field of immigration-related films, Veliz said his next film to explore immigration issues, which is still being written, will deal with a much-neglected subject: finding a solution. “It will be completely ideal at this point and time,” Veliz said. “An ideal view of a possible solution that could occur. That’s why we have movies, right? … To explore imagination and possibility that can design our world.” I VENEVISION INTERNATIONAL Feb. 19 releases the Venezuelan novela Olvidarte Jamas (three-DVD $14.98), the Mexican comedy Los Candidatos (DVD $12.98), the Goya-nominated family film Entre Amigos (DVD $14.98) and the thriller Hypnosis (DVD $16.98), starring Demian Bichir and based on the novel Hypnos by Javier Azpeita. I XENON PICTURES along with Vivendi Visual Entertainment just released Sexo Diario Vols. 7 and 8 (DVD $14.99 each). Vol. 7 features experts and celebrities talking about how age affects sex. Vol. 8 addresses the topic of the swinger lifestyle. Arriving Feb. 5 is the mystical La Nave de Los Locos (DVD $19.99). Distributed by Lionsgate, Maradona: The Hand of God (DVD $19.98) streets Feb. 29 (prebook Jan. 22) and is the first feature film about one of soccer’s most controversial and revered stars, Diego Armando Maradona. I WARNER HOME VIDEO Feb. 5 bows George Lopez: America’s Mexican (DVD $19.96), with G.Lo’s stand-up performance in front of a packed Dodge Theater in Phoenix, Ariz. – Angelique Flores Director Says ‘Ladrón’ Is for All Latinos By Angelique Flores he team of JoJo Henrickson and Joe Menendez first wrote the screenplay for Ladrón Que Roba a Ladrón in English. Then they had it translated into Spanish. And then they populated the cast with Mexican novela stars. And it was all done to reach Spanishspeaking Latinos in the U.S. market. Sound confusing? Maybe a little, but the formula seemed to work. The movie scored the biggest opening weekend at the box office for a Spanish film, according to IMDb.com. Now Lionsgate is bringing the critically lauded film to DVD Jan. 29 for $19.98. Extras include a making-of featurette, a featurette with the composer, a director’s commentary and deleted T scenes. Ladrón features an ensemble cast, most of which are well known to fans of novelas: Fernando Colunga, Miguel Varoni, Gabriel Soto, Julie Gonzalo, Ivonne Montero, Sonya Smith and Saúl Lisazo. The ‘PG-13’ film is a fun caper movie, fit for the family. In fact, at an advance screening, Colunga brought his mom, who applauded the film as being the first Spanish-language film she had seen without grossería (obscenities or bad language), sex or drugs. The film doesn’t feel like a typical Spanish-language film from Spain, Mexico, or other South American countries, said Menendez, who also directed the film. “They tend to be a bit more bleak,” Menendez said. “My approach to the types of stories is very mainstream. I don’t want to make something dark and esoteric.” And that Hollywood sensibility translated into Spanish is what makes this film unique, he said. “Back in the 1930s, Hollywood made films for a Spanish-speaking audience. This is the first time since then that Hollywood is doing that again,” Menendez said. With the screenplay written by Latino Americans (the Cuban Menendez was born in New York and raised in Miami; Henrickson was born in San Diego and raised in Texas), it wasn’t hard to get that American flavor on the screen. “This was something made by Latinos in the U.S. for Latinos in the U.S.” Menendez said. “It doesn’t mat- ter if you’re first-generation or secondgeneration [Latino]. It’s for all Latinos.” Bringing in novela stars was an idea from Jim McNamara, the former CEO of Telemundo. McNamara is chairman of Panamax, which produced the film with Narrow Bridge Films, run by Menendez and his wife Roni Menendez. McNamara was well aware of the star system in the Latin American world, Menendez said, which is made up mostly of TV actors. The director admits to approaching the idea with a bias against novela stars, but handpicked the actors with whom he wanted to work. “These actors belong on the big screen,” he said. BRIEFS I ‘ESL’ SCREENING The drama ESL premiered last week (Jan. 10) at the Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif. The special screening was followed by a Q&A session hosted by Wilmer Valderrama with director Youssef Delara and actress Maria Conchita Alonso. Allumination FilmWorks will release the ﬁlm Feb. 12 for $29.98. The ﬁlm will air on Showtime in March. The ﬁlm stars Kuno Becker, Danielle Camastra and Alonso. It explores immigration and acculturation issues for Mexicans in the United States and has been lauded at ﬁlm festivals around the country. – Angelique Flores Home Media Magazine January 13–19, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://IMDb.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - January 13-19, 2007

Home Media Magazine - January 13-19, 2007 Contents News TV DVD Cine Mercado Reviews Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Just Announced Christian Entertainment Review

Home Media Magazine - January 13-19, 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.