Renewed interest in Latin American film industries has opened a host of paths of scholarly exploration. Productions from different countries reflect particular social attitudes, political climates and self-conceptions, and must be considered separately and as a whole. The search for national identity is a key component of Latin American films in a time of decreasing cultural diversity and pressures to westernize. Globalization and falling government support have fueled cross-border collaborations, calling into question the idea of a movie's "nationality," and leaving some nations' film industries on the brink of collapse. Whether thriving or barely surviving, struggling to remain distinct or embracing globalization on its own terms, addressing the government or society, Latin American cinema remains vibrant, offering a wealth of material to scholars of all stripes. These collected essays explore important elements of Latin American cinema and its associated national film industries. The first section of essays examines the impact of modernization on both Latin American screen images and the industry itself, offering modern and historical perspectives. The second section focuses on filmmakers who deal with issues of gender and sexuality, whether sexual transgression, the role of female characters, or societal attitudes towards sex and nudity. The final section of essays discusses the relationship between national identity and Latin American film industries: how movies are used to create a sense of self; Uruguay's ongoing identity crisis; and Brazil's use of Hollywood's stereotypical depiction of the country to depict itself. Photographs and an annotated bibliography accompany each essay, and an index supplements the text.

Conventional silent cinema -- Avant-garde silent cinema -- Transition to sound -- Birth and growth of an industry -- Crisis and decline of studio cinema -- Neorealism and art cinema -- New Latin American cinema's militant phase -- New Latin American cinema's Neobaroque phase -- Collapse and rebirth of an industry -- Latin American cinema in the twenty-first century -- Conclusion : a triangulated cinema -- Appendix : discourses of modernity in Latin America

During the 1967 festival of Latin American Cinema in Viña del Mar, Chile, a group of filmmakers who wanted to use film as an instrument of social awareness and change formed the New Latin American Cinema. Nearly three decades later, the New Cinema has produced an impressive body of films, critical essays, and manifestos that uses social theory to inform filmmaking practices. This book explores the institutional and aesthetic foundations of the New Latin American Cinema. Zuzana Pick maps out six areas of inquiry—history, authorship, gender, popular cinema, ethnicity, and exile—and explores them through detailed discussions of nearly twenty films and their makers, including Camila (María Luisa Bemberg), The Guns (Ruy Guerra), and Frida (Paul Leduc). These investigations document how the New Latin American Cinema has used film as a tool to change society, to transform national expressions, to support international differences, and to assert regional autonomy.

From El Megano and Black God, White Devil to City of God and Babel, Latin American films have a rich history. In this concise but comprehensive account, Stephen M. Hart traces Latin American cinema from its origins in 1896 to the present day, along the way providing original views of major films and mini-biographies of major film directors. Describing the broad contours of Latin American film and its connections to major historical developments, Hart guides readers through the story of how Hollywood dominance succumbed to the emergence of the Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano and how this movement has led to the “New” New Latin American Cinema of the twenty-first century. He offers a fresh analysis of the effects of major changes in film technology, revealing how paradigm shifts such as the move to digital preceded new cinematographic techniques and visions. He also looks closely at the films themselves, examining how filmmakers express their messages. Finally, he considers the decision by a group of directors to film in English, which enhanced the visibility of Latin American cinema around the world. Featuring 120 illustrations, this clear, cogent guide to the history of this region’s cinema will appeal to fans of Central Station and Like Water for Chocolate alike.

Studying the case of Latin American cinema, this book analyzes one of the most public - and most exportable- forms of postcolonial national culture to argue that millennial era globalization demands entirely new frameworks for thinking about the relationship between politics, culture, and economic policies. Concerns that globalization would bring the downfall of national culture were common in the 1990s as economies across the globe began implementing neoliberal, free market policies and abolishing state protections for culture industries. Simultaneously, new technologies and the increased mobility of people and information caused others to see globalization as an era of heightened connectivity and progressive contact. Twenty-five years later, we are now able to examine the actual impact of globalization on local and regional cultures, especially those of postcolonial societies. Tracing the full life-cycle of films and studying blockbusters like City of God, Motorcycle Diaries, and Children of Men this book argues that neoliberal globalization has created a highly ambivalent space for cultural expression, one willing to market against itself as long as the stories sell. The result is an innovative and ground-breaking text suited to scholars interested in globalization studies, Latin-American studies and film studies.

A Companion to Latin American Cinema offers a wide-ranging collection of newly commissioned essays and interviews that explore the ways in which Latin American cinema has established itself on the international film scene in the twenty-first century. Features contributions from international critics, historians, and scholars, along with interviews with acclaimed Latin American film directors Includes essays on the Latin American film industry, as well as the interactions between TV and documentary production with feature film culture Covers several up-and-coming regions of film activity such as nations in Central America Offers novel insights into Latin American cinema based on new methodologies, such as the quantitative approach, and essays contributed by practitioners as well as theorists

Screening Minors in Latin American Cinema is the first volume to delve into the construction of children's subjectivity and agency in Latin American film, and addresses such questions as: How and to what extent do films express the point of view of the child? How do plots and film practices represent children’s subjectivity and agency? Childhood studies has demonstrated the importance of examining the lives of children. Building on those insights, together with current research from film studies and Latin American cultural studies, the essays in this volume analyze the development of agency and voices of minors in contemporary Latin American film. The theoretical perspectives used—gender studies, psychoanalytic and postcolonial theory, film studies, play and performance studies, and emotion studies, among others—take into account innovative approaches to filmic techniques as they explore the varied representations of children.

Indigeneity in Latin American Cinema explores how contemporary films (2000-2020) participate in the evolution and circulation of images and sounds that in many ways define how indigenous communities are imagined, at a local, regional and global scale. The volume reviews the diversity of portrayals from a chronological, geopolitical, linguistic, epistemic-ontological, transnational and intersectional, paradigm-changing and self-representational perspective, allocating one chapter to each theme. The corpus of this study consists of 68 fictional features directed by non-indigenous filmmakers, 31 cinematic works produced by indigenous directors/communities, and 22 Cine Regional (Regional Cinema) films. The book also draws upon a significant number of engravings, drawings, paintings, photographs and films, produced between 1493 and 2000, as primary sources for the historical review of the visual representations of indigeneity. Through content and close (textual) analysis, interviews with audiences, surveys and social media posts analysis, the author looks at the contexts in which Latin American films circulate in international festivals and the paradigm shifts introduced by self-representational cinema and Roma (Mexico, 2018). Conclusively, the author provides the foundations of histrionic indigeneity, a theory that explains how overtly histrionic proclivities play a significant role in depictions of an imagined indigenous Other in recent films.

Mapping the historical and cultural contexts of film practices in Latin America, this two-volume collection of programmatic statements, esays and interviews is devoted to the study of a theorized, dynamic and unfinished cinematic movement. Forged by Latin America's post-colonial environment of underdevelopment and dependency, the New Latin American Cinema movement has sought to inscribe itself in Latin America's struggles for cultural and economic autonomy. This volume comprises essays on the development of the New Latin American Cinema as a comparative national project. Essays are grouped by nation into two regions - Middle and Central America and Caribbean and South America - for comparitive study, particularly between capitalist and post-revolutionary socialist formations. The selected essays examine the relationship between cinema and nationhood and the ambiguous categories of culture, identity and nation within the socio-historical specificities of the movement's development, especially in Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. This collection will serve as an essential reference and research tool for the study of world cinema. The collection, while celebrating the diversity and innovation of the New Latin American Cinema, explicates the historical importance of filmmaking as a cultural form and political practice in Latin America.

This updated and expanded edition gives critical analyses of 23 Latin American films from the last 20 years, including the addition of four films from Bolivia. Explored throughout the text are seven crucial themes: the indigenous image, sexuality, childhood, female protagonists, crime and corruption, fratricidal wars, and writers as characters. Designed for general and scholarly interest, as well as a guide for teachers of Hispanic culture or Latin American film and literature, the book provides a sweeping look at the logistical circumstances of filmmaking in the region along with the criteria involved in interpreting a Latin American film. It includes interviews with and brief biographies of influential filmmakers, along with film synopses, production details and credits, transcripts of selected scenes, and suggestions for discussion and analysis.