DVD DISTRIBUTORS ARE BREAKINGDOWN LANGUAGE BARRIERS
By BRUCE WESTBROOK
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Music may be the universal language, but DVD is becoming one, too, as the film industry embraces the United States' growing Hispanic population.

Fox Home Entertainment is distributing a slew of award-winning, critically acclaimed movies from Spain's Venevision International. Just arrived are Fausto 5.0, a Spanish spin on the classic tale of Dr. Faustus, as well as En La Ciudad Sin Límites (The City of No Limits) and Guerreros (Warriors). Each has been nominated for Goya Awards, Spain's equivalent of the Oscars.

Among the major studios, only Fox is making such a Spanish-language push, but smaller companies are taking the lead.

The biggest player is Ventura Entertainment, America's largest independent DVD distributor. Based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Ventura is rapidly building its business around foreign-language products.

Such a move isn't without precedent. In the late 1980s, major studios briefly emphasized Spanish-language films on VHS tape. Independent video stores also catered to Spanish-speaking customers (though such stores soon were engulfed by massive chains). Spanish-dubbed versions of American movies also have been sold separately on video since the medium's infancy, and language options have been a fixture of DVD since the format's inception in 1997.

FOR THE REST OF THIS STORY VISIT:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/entertainment/2622443