Father Geek here along with ol' Coffin Joe Jr. Today's column takes a different path from the usual. Coffin Joe felt that after a year + of writing the column it was time to give a sort of "State of the Union" address concerning the broad field of Cine Latino, a sort of nueva critica por los CineLocos that read our report each week, soooooo this column is more like an editoral, and next week it will return to normal.

Father Geek has one thing to add to his comments. That's that there are a lot of young latino filmmakers pouring their hearts and souls, and hard-earned cash into "Little" films out there. There's a group of them that I know here in Austin ( PACHANGA PUNCHLINES), and there are others out in LA and in New York ( BLAZIN ). Every major latino community has dozens of these kids, inspired by Robert Rodriguez's lowcost filmmaking and high profiled success. These filmmakers NEED your support, your interest, your help. Seek them out in your area. Do what you can to aid and encourage them. They ARE the future of CINE LATINO, its "sangre de vida."

Ahora, Vaya con Coffin Joe Jr...

Hey there you beasts, Coffin Joe Jr. here for another week of Latin-AICN. No news or reviews this week, instead I´m going to talk a bit about what I try to cover here, in this very column, every week.

You see, sometimes I think about the state of cinema in Latin America and other Latin countries(Spain, Portugal). Things don´t always look good, most of the time it looks really, really bad. Movies do get made, there´s some truly amazing stuff, but it just doesn´t work out. Lousy distribution, no advertising, competition from the blockbusters, you name it, there are tons of problems.

Yet, somehow, Latin films stay alive out there. "Amores Perros" blew me away. I´m pretty damn sure a lot of people all over the globe had a similar reaction. In Spain, you got this new generation of exciting, talented young guns, who do horror in particular, folks like Alex de la Iglesia, Alejandro Amenabar and Jaume Belagueró. Iglesia has his "Fu Manchu" movie coming next, Amenabar is working with big stars like Nicole Kidman in "The Others", Belagueró´s next is "The Darkness" with Anna Paquin. Spain is also home to the very exciting genre studio "Fantastic Factory", headed by horror maestro Brian Yuzna, with new flicks by Jack Sholder("The Hidden"), Stuart Gordon("Re-Animator") and Yuzna himself. Guillermo del Toro is now one of the most respected genre directors out there, "Blade 2" is probably one of the most anticipated flicks in production, he´s got someother amazing projects in the works, such as "Hellboy" and "The Coffin". Walter Salles is also going Hollywood with his latest movie starring Benicio del Toro and Juliette Binoche, and to be produced by Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, after "Central Station" opened a lot of doors for the him.

Film festivals in Latin countries are becoming more and more important as the years go by, events like the fests in San Sebastian, Havana, São Paulo, Mar del Plata, etc.

In the U.S. Latin artists are as hot as ever, Jennifer Lopez with her singing/acting carreer at its peak, Salma Hayek with her "Frida Kahlo" project, Benjamim Bratt becoming a household name, Jimmy Smits in "Episode 2", Penelope Cruz in a bunch of American movies ("Blow", "Woman on Top", "Captain Corelli´s Mandolin"), the success of director Robert Rodriguez´s "Spy Kids" and the excitement regarding his "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" opus, Michelle Rodriguez´s performance in "GirlFight" and "The Fast and the Furious", Amores Perros´s Alejandro González Iñárritu doing one of the BMW films shorts. I could keep going on and on.

Even out of the blue comes stuff that is just sort of astonishing, for instance, this weekend I saw a movie from Argentina called "Nueve Reinas" (my review will be in next week´s column), which just caught me by surprise, with a terrific plot and stylish visuals to match its ambitious crime/caper/noir story.

Here in Brazil things are looking up too, after a brief period of darkness, with support by government laws and the interest of American studios(Warner, Columbia, Fox) in distributing our movies, helping local filmmakers get their projects made and seen.

Award shows are strong too, with Mexico´s "Ariel" being one traditional example. Latin films are also making quite the impression when they compete in film festivals all over the world, becoming strong contenders where ever they are up for awards. The Sundance Film Festival has even a special section in its awards, just for Latin movies. How cool is that?

When our films hit the U.S. market, sadly in limited releases most of the time, they are constantly proving to be very good performers, with good reviews and great averages per screen. The Oscar race for best foreign film has been populated by many Latin films in the last few years ("Amores Perros", "Tango", "Central Station", "Four Days in September", "All About my Mother"). The Latin community has even gotten their own TV shows in the U.S., with realistic portrayals of their lives and culture, without tired stereotypes.

Things are looking up, change is happening, got to keep working. If we make good films, they are going to have their own space and decent exposure. Studios like Sony Pictures Classics, Miramax and other smaller ones are always coming out with new Latin movies, seeking the best stuff for you. Even on the home video and DVD market there´s so much to choose from, with new Latin releases almost every week. Personally, I can´t wait for DVD of "Amores Perros". I got "Central Station" (with a commentary track featuring Fernanda Montenegro and Walter Salles) and "All About my Mother", going to get the "Pixote" DVD when I have some cash. We got Ricky Martin! Livin´ La Vida Loca! Sorry, got a little carried away there.

I can only hope that enough folks out there care about what we´re trying to do here at Latin-AICN, and at the other international AICN sections (Asia, Africa, Europe), because it is hard work. I´ve being doing this for a year and a few months, and so I´d like to thank all the spies who sent in their scoops and everyone who helped me get these columns up every Tuesday. Thank you.

Is everything perfect? Hell no, but it is looking pretty damn good.

I´m done for this week.

Coffin Joe Jr says: bye.