This book critically examines how movies that feature real or imagined explorers and expeditions creatively feature the geography of Latin America. It focuses on how locales are scripted into film plots and artistically depicted, and demonstrates that place is as important as any character in a film, especially in this genre. Nineteen key films are analyzed. Some, like Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, The Other Conquest, Embrace of the Serpent, and The Lost City of Z are based on the exploits of real explorers. Others are fictional, including Apocalypto, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Dora and the Lost City of Gold. The author also discusses the evolution of exploration-discovery films, including trends that will likely be found in forthcoming movies.

Addressing the appeal of the journey narrative from pre-cinema to new media and through documentary, fiction and the spaces between, this collection reveals the journey to be a persistent presence across cinema and in cultural modernity.

This volume explores the ways films made by Latin American directors and/or co-produced in Latin American countries have employed the road movie genre to address the reconfiguration of the geographical, sociopolitical, economic, and cultural landscape of Latin America.

This engaging book explores some of the most significant films to emerge from Latin America since 2000, an extraordinary period of international recognition for the region's cinema. Each chapter assesses an individual film, with some contributors considering the reasons for the unprecedented commercial and critical successes of movies such as City of God, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y tu mamá también, and Nine Queens, while others examine why equally important films failed to break out on the international circuit. Written by leading specialists, the chapters not only offer textual analysis, but also trace the films' social context and production conditions, as well as critical national and transnational issues. Their well-rounded analyses provide a rich picture of the state of contemporary filmmaking in a range of Latin American countries. Nuanced and thought-provoking, the readings in this book will provide invaluable interpretations for students and scholars of Latin American film. Contributions by: Sarah Barrow, Nuala Finnegan, David William Foster, Miraim Haddu, Geoffrey Kantaris, Deborah Shaw, Lisa Shaw, Rob Stone, Else R. P. Vieira, and Claire Williams.

Cinematic Journeys explores the interconnected histories, theories and aesthetics of mobile vision and cinematic movement. It traces the links between certain types of movement of/in the frame and broader cultural trends that have historically informed Western sensibilities. It contextualises that genealogy with detailed analysis of contemporary and recent 'travel films' as well as older works.The book investigates how movements of exploration, discovery and revelation are activated in specific cinematic narratives of travelling and displacement. Such narratives are analysed with attention to the mass population movements and displacements that form their referential background.Cinematic Journeys also examines the ways in which travelling affects film itself. Case studies focus on films as travelling commodities (with the popularity of Indian films in Greece in the 1950s and 60s as case study); and, through a study of subtitles, on the category of the 'foreign spectator' (who in the encounter with 'foreign' films moves across cultural borders).Films considered in the book include Sunrise, Slow Motion, Hukkle, Death in Venice, Voyage to Italy, The Motorcycle Diaries, Koktebel, Japon, Blackboards, Ulysses' Gaze, and the work of directors Tony Gatliff and Fatih Akin.

From the Foundations in Global Studies series, this text offers students a fresh, comprehensive, multidisciplinary entry point to Latin America. After a brief introduction to the study of the region, the early chapters of the book survey the essentials of Latin American history; important historical narratives; and the region’s languages, religions, and global connections. Students are guided through the material with relevant maps, resource boxes, and text boxes that support and guide further independent exploration of the topics at hand. The second half of the book features interdisciplinary case studies, each of which focuses on a specific country or subregion and a particular issue. Each chapter gives a flavor for the cultural distinctiveness of the particular country yet also draws attention to global linkages. Readers will come away from this book with an understanding of the larger historical, political, and cultural frameworks that shaped Latin America as we know it today, and of current issues that have relevance in Latin America and beyond.

This book focuses on a selection of internationally known Latin American films. The chapters are organized around national categories, grounding the readings not only in the context of social and political conditions, but also in those of each national film industry. It is a very useful text for students of the region's cultural output, as well as for students of film studies who wish to learn more about the innovative and often controversial films discussed. Contents: Introduction 1. Cuba: From Memories of Underdevelopment to Strawberry and Chocolate 2. Mexico: Like Water for Chocolate and Amores Perros 3. Chile: Searching the Past for the Future in Amnesia and The Frontier 4. Argentina: The Voyage and I the Worst of All 5. Brazil: National Identity and the Family in Pixote and Central Station Conclusion; Filmography; Bibliography; Index