This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Utah has food markets, restaurants and radio stations that cater to the state's growing Latino population — but no movie theaters.
And in Salt Lake County, where 16.6 percent of the more than 1 million residents are of Latino origin, some would like to see a movie theater that regularly screens Spanish-language films.
"Definitely we need them," said Paula Brog, chairwoman of the board of directors of the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "We have a huge population here."
The economics of a specialty movie market, though, might make such a venture a tough sell. "It's too much of a huge investment for Joe Blow on the corner," Brog said.
To open a Spanish-language theater in the Salt Lake City area would require an existing theater, said Tori Baker, director of the Salt Lake Film Society, the nonprofit that runs the Broadway and Tower theaters.
"Infrastructure-wise, there aren't any cinemas in Salt Lake City that are available," Baker said. Most of the old theaters in the area that aren't still operating have long-ago been converted to other purposes or torn down altogether.
For example, Baker said, the building in Kearns that housed Tu Cine, which opened in 2002 with dubbed-in-Spanish Hollywood films but closed several years later, is now a paintball center.
The business model for a Spanish-language theater, "wouldn't let you build from the ground up," Baker said. A theater would be dependent on a limited number of dubbed or subtitled prints from Hollywood studios, and would have to run like a second-run "dollar theater," she said.
The Broadway and Tower do screen some Spanish-language films, such as this year's Oscar winner from Argentina, "The Secret in Their Eyes." But, Baker said, "The number of Spanish-language films [we play] is based on what's available to us."
The films that play in art-houses may not appeal to the broad Latino audience, said Luis Guadano, assistant professor of Spanish at Weber State University, who has organized a Spanish-language movie program this fall at WSU's Wildcat Theater.
Look at the DVD section of a Latino market, Guadano said, and you'll see "a lot of thrillers, murder mysteries. ... More popular films, rather than artsy films."
A Spanish-language theater in Utah could give the state's Latino population a cultural center, Guadano said. The Latino community, he said, "is submerged, all over the place. ... There's not a real idea of identity, in terms of movies or art."
Cine en español
Some venues in Utah occasionally screen Spanish-language films:
Salt Lake Film Society • The nonprofit sometimes screens films from Spain, and Central and South America, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas, 111 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City, and Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City. The touring Global Film Initiative, which opens Friday at the Broadway, features 10 films from the developing world — including one each from Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Go to http://www.saltlakefilmsociety.com for program details.
Salt Lake City Film Center • The community organization has an occasional Spanish-language series, which screen usually at the Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City. Go to http://www.slcfilmcenter.org for a schedule.
Mestizo Coffeehouse • The cafe and art gallery, at 641 W. North Temple (in the courtyard of the Citifront complex) screens documentary films from Spanish-speaking countries. Look for the cafe's Facebook page.
Wildcat Theater • The venue at Weber State University in Ogden is host to a six-film series of Spanish-language films this fall, curated by assistant professor Luis Gaudano.