The closing night gala of the 9th edition of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival proved once again that LALIFF knows how to throw a party. Add Brazilians into the mix, and you have one powerful cocktail. The Brazilian romantic comedy, O Casamento de Romeo e Julieta by director Bruno Baretto ended the festival with a lighthearted love story about the power of soccer. The Gabi prize went to Ricardo Montalban, who could not be present (which is fortunate as the couple that led the homage were terrible. Fortunately Edward James Olmos spoke passionately about all of Montalban's contributions in Hollywood and gave him the respect he deserved.

The gala featured live music by Johnny Polanco and his band, who managed to keep the dance floor hopping all night. Delectable Brazilian food and a Remy Martin open bar ensured that this Sunday night party wasn't going to be over by midnight. One definite highlight was meeting actor Jorge Perugorría (Strawberries and Chocolate), who had key roles in three films in this year's festival: Frutas en el Café, Caribe and Hormigas en la Boca. His flight from Cuba had been delayed due to the hurricanes but he was finally able to make it.

And the festival winners! Best Documentary prize went to the Spanish filmmaker Javier Corcuera for Invierno en Bagdad. Las Mantendidas Sin Sueños, an Argentine film by Vera Fogwill and Martín Desalvo, took home the prize for Best First Film. The audience award went to Habana Blues by Benito Zambrano, which also won the Best Screenplay prize. The Jury also had the task of selecting three films to be submitted to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as candidates for nominations for Best Foreign Film for the Golden Globes. The chosen films were Las Mantenidas Sin Sueños by Vera Fogwill and Martín Desalvo from Argentina, La Ultima Luna, directed by Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin (who also won the Best Director Award), and Habana Blues, by Benito Zambrano from Spain.

The quality of films at this year's festival was top-notch and well deserved kudos go to Festival Director Marlene Dermer, who was also celebrating her birthday on closing nights. Next year's tenth anniversary should be a real treat...

:: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28

While it brought an interesting inside look at the consequences of the Contras/Sandinista war on a small rural Nicaraguan community El Inmortal suffers from a lack of focus and an excessive taste for mise-en-scene and fast Tony Scott-style cuts, which ultimately undermine its purpose. As for Between, an indie flick set in Tijuana, which aims at being a David Lynch/Brian de Palma-type gumbo, I regret to say that it provided me with enough unintentional laughs that I had to run away outside the theater before the Q&A started.

:: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25

This year's selection of films dealing with the sounds of Latin American has been varied, from Cuban and Brazilian music, to traditional Mexican music. One definite highlight of this year's festival is Hasta El "Último Trago…Corazón, director Beto Gomez's valentine to the feminine voices of Mexico. He interviews singers as diverse as Chavela Vargas, Lila Downs, Eugenia León, Astrid Hadid, La Negra Graciana and Iraida Noriega on topics ranging from their music to their thoughts on politics, love, relationships and equality intermingled with concert footage. North American audiences might recognize Chavela Vargas and Lila Downs from the Frida soundtrack; this documentary has just opened another door to more wonderful music. Beto Gomez is quickly proving himself as a major talent who is able to work in completely antipodal genres: just take a look at Puños Rosas and El Sueño del Caiman.

:: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25

With a name like Semen: A Love Story, one might have (wishfully) thought that LALIFF was now accepting porn. Far from it! What followed was one of the funniest, original romantic comedies I'd seen in a long time. Sure the general boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-finds-girl-again structure is familiar enough, but twists make this movie truly delightful. Ariadna is a trapeze artist looking to become artificially inseminated and Serafin is the man charged with this task at the clinic. After she fails to get pregnant and his love for her grows, he decides to use his own semen. What follows is a comedy of errors with a strong sub-theme of how we qualify "family". Shot in Douglas Sirkian colors, this fairy tale comes to life with its heavy dose of black humor.

:: MONDAY, OCTOBER 24

The power of art comes to life in Havana in the Cuban film Frutas En El Café, directed by Esteban Ramirez. An artist, a devoted communist and his capitalist wife, and a prostitute find their lives completely changed by a painting that comes into their possession for a short time. They are all trying to survive in Havana, but Faría the prostitute has to think quickly before it's too late. Humorous and warm-hearted, Frutas En El Café also deals with issues of sexual degradation and manipulation (including a brutal rape scene reminiscent of Irreversible) during a time when it seems like everything is up for grabs.

:: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23

If you're familiar with this website, you'll know that a Plume Noire pick happens about as often as a French movie without nudity but here we go: on only my second day at the festival, I came across La Sombra del Caminante, a Colombian film filled with humanity and cruelty, which tests the boundaries of friendship between two outcasts: one cripple and the other homeless. Shot in black & white, Ciro Guerra's film manages to be both quirky and emotional, without ever falling into some cheesy Hollywood-style pathos. In a completely different style, Fabio Fabuloso, a documentary about a surfer prodigy from Brazil proved to be a lot of fun, particularly thanks to some imaginative editing — think The Kid Stays in the Picture — and an exciting electro-samba-bossanova soundtrack. Regretfully though, after awhile it becomes redundant — how many times do you need to hear that he's great and has the best moves on a wave? — In the end, that makes it more of a "fan" piece than a neutral biopic as there isn't anything negative to say about this mythic surfing figure.

A complete surprise today was legendary Chilean director Miguel Littin's journey into Palestine with La Última Luna. A tale of an unlikely friendship at the turn of the 20th century between a Jewish man who arrives from Chile to build his dream home in Palestine and the Palestinian Christian who helps him, Littin's film ominously foreshadows the coming violence in that region of the world. Filmed in Arabic and shot on location in Palestine, Littin's film is fiercely political and has a strong, beating heart that unites it with South America (where the largest population of Palestinians outside of the Middle East lives). Mel Gibson, take note!

:: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22

It was pretty sad to see a room almost empty for the showing of Concerto Campestre, a fable about a womanizing maestro set in 19th century Brazil. While the film proved to be a bit too cheesy for my taste at times, it featured enough sub-themes and metaphors to make it a worthy entry here. Hormigas En La Boca, which followed a Spaniard stirring trouble in Cuba on the eve of the revolution was the most ambitious film of the day, a gangster film with strong political commentary and a doomed love story. Las Vueltas del Citrillo is one of these movies that voluntarily aims at being a painful experience for the audience and it certainly succeeds in this respect. An update of Mexican realism, this is a dark and provocative comedy where most characters are morally — or physically — disgusting.

:: FIRST LOOK

Though we were unfortunately not able to attend the opening Gala because of a transportation issue, it is clear after these first screenings, that the quality of the selection has improved this year. That isn't to say that the films last year weren't good- on the contrary, but the quality is greater this year in terms of production.