The producers tried to liven up the night with a theme — movie musicals — but even that tribute grew overly long, larded with unnecessary performances that had nothing to do with the films at hand.
Those who make specifically black-theme movies, she said, should realize that "no one is ever going to care about their film except the people it's made for, which is, black folks".
But Latinos were six to seven times as likely to watch Latino-theme movies or movies starring Hispanic actors as to watch movies of a similar genre without a Latino theme or actors.
Ms. Nair, director of Indian-theme movies like "Salaam Bombay!," "The Namesake," and "Monsoon Wedding" (a story soon to be on Broadway), calls Earhart as America's first modern celebrity.
Moctesuma Esparza, producer of "Selena," "Price of Glory" and other Latin-theme movies, argues that both Latin American cinema and American Latin-theme productions can look forward to growing audiences.
The plan is to put black-theme movies in commercial theaters, initially from the independent film program recently begun by the AMC theater chain, for a two-week run supported by social networks, mailing lists and other buzz-building services at the disposal of allied ethnic film festivals.
ISHERWOOD In a recent Sunday piece, the Times film critic A. O. Scott addressed the issue of Iraq-theme movies -- most of which haven't done much business -- and I think there's an argument to be made that there isn't a wide audience for theater that simply apes what journalism can do better and more immediately.
Distributed by TLA Releasing — the outfit behind a passel of recent gay-theme movies ("Fruit Fly," "BearCity") — it's also about double lives, the violence that can lurk inside those who cannot face themselves and the laudable quest for gay marriage in the United States.
"The Reader," which Harvey Weinstein pushed into consideration because he had a hunch, was among the five because Holocaust-theme movies always seem to catch the Academy's eye and because it represents a very specific idea — in this instance, by the director Stephen Daldry — of how a narrative should unfold on screen.
Given the number of war-theme movies ("Redacted," "In the Valley of Elah" and "Lions for Lambs," among others) that have been disasters at the box office, and given that moviegoers may not be much in the mood for a comedy about Mideast misadventures, Mr. Cusack is well aware of the obstacles on the road ahead.
