Presence of Two Dreamy Stars Renders LAFF 2009 Lineup Total Blur

In a conciliatory gesture aimed at making amends for a controversy that saw its former director stepping down amid rumors he had contributed to an anti-gay-marriage initiative, the Los Angeles Film Festival offered up the impossibly dreamy-eyed same-sex union of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna for their lineup announcement at a Westwood hotel this morning. Their involvement relates to the 2009 LAFF's spotlight on their Ambulante Film Festival, an itinerant documentary series that brings stories by and about Mexican cultures to areas that might otherwise never have access to them.

"It all started five or six years ago," Bernal explained, "With a film that we saw called Tropico de cancer, by Eugenio Polgovsky -- a great documentary filmmaker. It was a very small, personal endeavor, but incredibly brilliant. It was shot in San Luis Potosi, one of the poorest states in Mexico, and it was about a family that exploits the deserts and all its natural resources, and sells them to tourists. It was a very heartbreaking story, and a great X-ray of what Mexico was going through. We wanted to support it in some way, and specifically wanted the people of San Luis Potosi to see this film."

That worthy goal led the old friends and two-time screen partners (we spoke with them yesterday about their hilarious sibling rivalry movie, Rudo y Cursi, which opens this week) to tumble into the world of festival curatorship, assembling an annual collection of the country's best documentary cinema, and shepherding it from theaters in major cities to the town squares of tiny, rural villages. As Luna points out, however, the selection process is now best left in others' hands: "There's always someone pissed off, who says theirs is much better. So we don't select the films anymore."

Incoming festival director Rebecca Yeldham -- a senior programmer at Sundance and the producer of films like The Kite Runner and Anvil! The Story of Anvil -- gushingly thanked "the boys" for their involvement, and teased the centerpiece screening of Michael Mann's hyperstylized 1930s gangster picture, Public Enemy. The very notion of star Johnny Depp gracing the filmmaker-friendly regional festival sent a wave of oohs and aahs throughout the room.

Director of Programming Rachel Rosen explained the 2009 program features films that "mixes documentary and narrative" storytelling techniques and "crosses borders, in front and behind the camera," before proudly noting that one-third of the selections were directed by women -- a statistic that drew a round of applause.

"We also have a 14-hour Chinese documentary screened over two days," she warned, "Catnip to the true cinephile." Or perhaps she meant Sinophile. The festival runs from June 18 to June 28. The full lineup is available here.

Below, Diego Luna discusses Ambulante Film Festival, whose official site is here.

· LA Film Fest 2009