Maya finds ‘Sleep Dealer’ among Sundance ruins

Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Alex Rivera indie sci-fi flick Sleep Dealer found a distributor with Maya Entertainment. The film went on to nab the Alfred P. Sloan and Waldo Salt Screenwriting accolades.

44.3 million Latinos living in America can’t be wrong. With the country going multi-lingual, the next step is to move Spanish-language films into the mainstream.
And what hath Mexico (and Spain) wrought? Pedro Almodovar, with his beautiful, witty and crazy films “Women On The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown” and “Volver”. Alfonso Cuaron kick started his career with the (collegiate) must-see “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and went mainstream with Children of Men and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”. Benicio del Toro. Antonio Banderas. Salma Hayek. Penelope Cruz. America Ferrera. And with more and more Spanish-speaking actors, directors, and bigwigs cruising into American households, the American public is getting with the program.

“Sleep Dealer” follows an environment where Mexican immigrant labor is outsourced from Tijuana via a cyber network.
Release dates haven’t been set yet, but underneath the sci-fi/fantasy veneer and the lure of  a name in topliner Léonor
Varela, a common experience is laid bare. Jose Martinez Jr., the head of acquisitions for Maya, explains, “”The film uses the unique combination of science fiction and fantasy to bring across a provocative message about assimilation in the United States within the global economy”.