A Festival of worldwide exposure.

• Author: Suro, Federico
• Position: The VI Americas Film Festival

The VI Americas Film Festival lends credence to the dictum that cinema is very much alive and a force to be reckoned with in our Hemisphere. Most of the films in this year's Festival are not blockbuster money makers, but they offer an immense compensation. They are frequently offbeat and always intriguing. With over 24 works, the Festival brings out the marked contrasts of the countries represented, reflecting the vision of its founder and president of the Americas Film Foundation, Glaucia Baena Soares. "The Festival is a celebration of the peoples of the Americas, the sharing of concerns and commonalities, and the honoring of our cultural diversity," remarks Mrs. Baena Soares.

The common denominator is the extraordinarily fine caliber of the selection this year. Although the festival is a serious and scholarly forum, lively surprises abound with movies that one is not likely to find at the neighborhood cinema. Screenings in Washington, D.C., are from October 8 to 18 at both the American Film Institute Theater and the Biograph, after which the Festival travels to The Eleven Thousand Sunset Boulevard Cinema Complex in Los Angeles, California, for a repeat performance October 22 to 29.

Inaugurating the festival is the much awaited Spanish hit "El rey pasmado" (The Dumfounded King), winner of the prestigious Goya Prize in 1992. Director Imanol Uribe, is one of the many filmmakers who honor the festival with their presence this year. The film tells a story about the 20-year-old King Felipe IV of Spain, who becomes obsessed after seeing a nude for the first time in his life. His erotic desires clash with the interests of the church and the state and the belief at that time that "all women are either whores or witches."

Another hit from that country is Carlos Saura's dazzling cinematic exercise "Sevillanas," which is imbued with his special brand of magic and poetry. THis documentary homage to Flamenco dance is exhilarating both to the eye and to the ear. Saura has concocted a brilliant film symphony, passionately composed through music and dance that could be seen as a companion piece to his much acclaimed "Blood Wedding." "Sevillanas" features some of the luminaries of this unique Andalusian world, such as the legendary Lola Flores--the languorous camera climbs up her dress as if it were a strange sort of abstract landscape that suddenly brims with uncontrolled emotion as the divine Lola goes into her act. Saura, who was honored last year with...