This year’s installment of the annual “Latinbeat” cinema series, organized by the Film Society at Lincoln Center, features a slew of goodies from reel-importing heavyweights like Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. But hardcore cine-snobs will want to catch rare submissions from countries like Bolivia, Uruguay and Ecuador whose movie industries are damn near non-existent. “Paraguayan Hammock,” for example, is the first film to be produced in its eponymous country in over three decades. And if Central American film’s first ever foray into the “Latinbeat” fray doesn’t titillate you, maybe Gael García Bernal’s directorial debut, “Déficit,” will. (He’s so dreamy.)
The series will run from Sept. 7 to 18th at Manhattan’s Walter Reade Theater, its cheesy name notwithstanding.

Small countries, great films [New York Daily News]
Latinbeat 2007 [Film Society Of Lincoln Center]