Direct to DVD: A case study of latina/o genre and audience

The breakthrough success of El Mariachi shows the existence of an alternate production, distribution, and reception chain that caters specifically to Latinas/os and Latin Americans. This direct to video distribution market is usually ignored by big Hollywood studios and Latina/o film studies. The direct to DVD Latina/o films usually distributed don’t fit into these categories since they are not “sanitized.” Most of these films present a “threatening” portrayal of Latina/o life in Mexico and the US Primarily dealing with the violence of crossing the border or surviving narco-run governments, these movies highlight the marginalization of US-Mexico border communities. Laguna Productions, the production and distribution company created by Elart Coello, participates in a dialogue with Latina/o film and mainstream films in an attempt to appeal to a large and constantly changing Latina/o and Latin American audience. Mexican Golden Age movies, as the name implies, are movies made in Mexico during the Golden Age, roughly from 1936 to the late 1950s.