Film & Cinema: Latin America and Spain

Immigration is an important and much-discussed topic throughout the world, and its depiction on screen helps shape the way we perceive this issue. In Migration in Contemporary Hispanic Cinema, Thomas G. Deveny looks at film and immigration with a global perspective, examining emigration and immigration films from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Central America, and the Hispanic Caribbean.In this volume, Deveny approaches each movie with a close textual analysis, keeping in mind the sociological theories regarding migration, as well as incorporating criticism on the film. Recurring themes, such as the depiction of the Other, individual identity, and social and cultural contextualization (stereotypes, rejection, acceptance, and change) are identified and discussed. Films such as Flowers from Another World, Return to Hansala, El Camino, 14 Kilometers, María Full of Grace, and others are carefully studied. Additional chapters analyze films about Colombian mules coming to the United States and Uruguayan prostitutes in Spain, and the final chapter examines Al otro Lado (To the Other Side), a film with narratives involving three nationalities and three destinations, thus showing the global nature of the phenomenon.Through the analyses of immigration and emigration depictions in film, this book enables readers to comprehend the universal nature of migration. Like the films it analyzes, Migration in Contemporary Hispanic Cinema will provide a deeper understanding of people who leave their homeland for a better life.

This book explores the role of emotion and affect in recent Latin American cinemas (1990s-2000s) in the context of larger public debates about past traumas and current anxieties. The author examines some of the most significant trends in contemporary Latin American filmmaking, including the emergence of the thriller as a preferred genre to address the legacies of the 1960s and 1970s; the rise of “youth” films about globally-connected and disaffected young adults; and the proliferation of transnational productions by “traveling” filmmakers that encourage audiences to feel for “others.” The book features close textual analysis of individual films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, and Mexico as well as commentary on the changing structure of Latin American film industries. It frames those analyses within a discussion of recent critical and theoretical debates about affect, sentimentalism and compassion, particularly as they relate to film.

This book analyzes the initial engagement with Hollywood by key Latin American writers and intellectuals during the first few decades of the 20th century. The film metropolis presented an ambiguous, multivalent sign for established figures like Horacio Quiroga, Alejo Carpentier and Mário de Andrade, as well as less renowned writers like the Mexican Carlos Noriega Hope, the Chilean Vera Zouroff and the Cuban Guillermo Villarronda. Hollywood’s arrival on the scene placed such writers in a bind, as many felt compelled to emulate the "artistry" of a medium dominated by a nation posing a symbolic affront to Latin American cultural and linguistic autonomy as well as the region’s geopolitical sovereignty. The film industry thus occupied a crucial site of conflict and reconciliation between aesthetics and politics.

This engaging book explores Latin America cinema since 2000, an extraordinary period of international recognition. Leading specialists consider the reasons for the unprecedented commercial and critical successes of movies such as iCity of God, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y tu mam tambiZn,i and iNine Queens,i as well as equally important films that failed to break out on the international circuit. The chapters offer not only textual analysis, but also consider the films' social context and production conditions. Their well-rounded analysis offers 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.

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

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is often one of the last cultural bastions to recognize products created outside of Hollywood. As a result, the 16 Oscar nominations given to Mexican films in 2007 marked an important-and very conspicuous-admission of the influence of Latin American films on American filmmaking.

Latino American cinema encompasses traditions of resistance, suppression, and accommodation, voiced through mainstream commercial movies and crossover-market films as well as documentaries, independent productions, and avante-garde or experimental projects. Latina and Latino media production aptly represents American multiculturalism, revealing insights into the past, present, and future of those in front of and behind the camera.