aerial view of the Amazon river

Film

Fall 2009 | Volume VIII, Number 3

Table of Contents

Editor’s Letter →

by June Carolyn Erlick

First Take

First Take: New Technologies and New Narratives

First Take: New Technologies and New Narratives

Recent film trends in Latin America and beyond cannot be understood without examining new technologies and their impact on new narrative forms. That is why, in November 2008, the Real Colegio Complutense of Harvard University, together with the Universidad Complutense…

First Take: Film in Latin America

First Take: Film in Latin America

Latin America cinema has undergone a remarkable transformation since the mid-1990s, with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba and Mexico in particular emerging as vibrant centers for some of the most innovative and imaginative filmmaking in contemporary world cinema. A bastion…

Mexico

Oscars for Mexican Filmmakers

Oscars for Mexican Filmmakers

English + Español
A couple of years ago, in 2007, the so-called Three Amigos (the filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu) went up on stage for the 79th Oscar Awards presentations. Their three films (Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth and Babel, respectively)/Hace poco tiempo, en el año 2007, los llamados Three Amigos (los cinerealizadores mexicanos Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro y Alejandro González Iñárritu) subieron al escenario de la 79ª premiación del Óscar. En total, sus tres películas (Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth y Babel, respectivamente)…

Mexico’s National Museum of Film

Mexico’s National Museum of Film

Mexico has a long history of filmmaking, from the silent era to the present, with some particularly prolific periods that have been stimulated by state sponsorship and international recognition. Appreciation of the results began in the 1940s, when Mexican films won prizes at…

Eréndira Ikikunari

Eréndira Ikikunari

Hucha mítetixapquia escacsi hupiringa, máteru cuiripuecha. Atahpiticha encacsi tyámu xucuparhapca ca engacsi cacapequa úquaaca imaechani engancsi cuahpequarhenga. Ma cuiripuhcu no cherheaspti. Yurhistsquiri ma enga naneni, hamemquia Eréndira arhicurhispti…

Golden-Epoch Cinema in Mexico

Golden-Epoch Cinema in Mexico

The acting was appalling, the inconsistencies of plot and character so constant that any occasional consistency seemed glaring. The soft-bodied chorus girls always skipped and wiggled in non-unison and the heroines always sobbed in precisely the same cadence, and no director…

Brazil

Coconut Milk in Coca Cola Bottles

Coconut Milk in Coca Cola Bottles

Common knowledge has it that virtually any movie, once removed from its original cultural context of production and reception, might be either misunderstood and misperceived or re-interpreted and re-signified. Likewise, we may agree that national cinemas seek to define, challenge….

Neither the Sertão or the Favela

Neither the Sertão or the Favela

To frame the poetics of the ordinary in terms of subtlety and delicateness is to propose an antidote both for cynicism and for what I call Neo-Naturalism. Its appearance, at least in Brazilian cinema and literature, has been clearly identified, ranging from peripheral subjects…

Brazilian Cinema Now

Brazilian Cinema Now

Snow falling in the city of São Paulo, in southern Brazil? Taking a helicopter in São Paulo then arriving a few moments later in the deep wilderness of the Amazon jungle, half a continent further away to the north? Then meeting a white Asian tiger in the heart of the Amazon forest?…

Argentina

An Interview with Lita Stantic

An Interview with Lita Stantic

English + Español
Producer Lita Stantic (b. 1942) played a crucial role in the nuevo cine argentino that surged to international prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s by discovering and supporting young, emergent filmmakers- Lucrecia Martel, Pablo Trapero, Israel Adrián Caetano, Pablo Reyero, among them…

The Three Lives of Fernando Solanas

The Three Lives of Fernando Solanas

English + Español
In 1969, Fernando Ezequiel Solanas (b. Buenos Aires, 1936), in collaboration with other Argentine filmmakers, filmed a chapter of Argentina, mayo de 1969: los caminos de la liberación. The film has never been restored in its entirety, and few have seen it./En 1969, Fernando Ezequiel Solanas (Buenos Aires, 1936), filmó, junto con otros cineastas argentinos, un capítulo de Argentina mayo de 1969: los caminos de la liberación, una película legendaria que hasta hoy no ha podido restaurarse entera y que pocas personas han visto.

Memory, Identity, and Film

Memory, Identity, and Film

English + Español
The children of the victims of dictatorial terror in the 1970s in Argentina have used a variety of language andpoetics to demand justice for their parents’ executioners. At the same time, they use these diverse expressions as a form of memorial tribute/Los descendientes de las víctimas del terror dictatorial de los años setenta en Argentina, utilizaron distintos lenguajes y poéticas para expresar sus demandas públicas de justicia contra los verdugos de sus padres y a la vez como práctica de rememoración…

New Argentine Cinema

New Argentine Cinema

English + Español
Throughout the year 2004, while I was finishing my book Otros mundos on New Argentine Cinema, I kept thinking both about recent film productions and the turmoil caused by the Peronist government in the 1990s. In the chapter on politics, “Adiós al pueblo,” (“Goodbye to the people”)/En el curso del 2004, terminé de organizar y redactar mi libro sobre el nuevo cine argentino, Otros mundos, en el que trataba, en un único movimiento, de reflexionar sobre la producción cinematográfica reciente y sobre la conmoción que había significado el gobierno peronista de la década del noventa. En el capítulo dedicado a la política, titulado “Adiós al pueblo”….

Chile

A Brief Chronicle of Chilean Cinema

A Brief Chronicle of Chilean Cinema

English + Español
As I see it, the development of Chilean cinema during the last years followed two general paths. The first line of development concerns the institutional framework. Cultural enterprises, especially film, have played a growing role in the democratization process./Si tuviese que definir el recorrido del cine Chileno durante los últimos, tendría que establecer al menos dos líneas en los que es posible detectar sus recorridos. En primera instancia el marco institucional y el creciente rol que han adquirido las industrias culturales- y en especial, el cine- en el proceso de democratización.

Che to Che

Che to Che

An unlikely couple monopolized Chilean headlines about the 16th Festival de Cine de Viña del Mar in 2004: international superstar Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and local Chilean Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) activist Víctor Hugo Robles, who also focuses on HIV/AIDS issues…

Cuba and Beyond

García Márquez and Cinema

García Márquez and Cinema

English + Español
Gabriel García Márquez’s passion for film has always been constant and multifaceted. He has written film reviews; he has produced an extensive report about filmmaker Miguel Littin, Clandestine in Chile; he has led script workshops/La pasión de Gabriel García Márquez por el cine ha sido constante y ha tenido múltiples facetas. Ha escrito crónicas de cine; ha escrito guiones que se han llevado a la pantalla y otros que sólo han visto la luz a través de las palabras; ha escrito un extenso reportaje sobre el cineasta Miguel Littin Clandestino en Chile

Cuban Film

Cuban Film

English + Español
The contemporary situation of Cuban film cannot be separated from the very existence of the Cuban Revolution./No hay modo de separar la situación contemporánea del cine en Cuba de la existencia y el hecho de la Revolución cubana,…

Short Takes

Medellín Bajo Escrutinio

Medellín Bajo Escrutinio

“El cine es el arte de los lugares” escribió alguna vez Víctor Gaviria, y efectivamente, yo descubría lugares nuevos en cada película de mi juventud: un parque en Nueva York, una avenida en París, una iglesia en un pueblo de España. Llegaban a mí como imágenes de espacios remotos…

The Americas: Updated!

The Americas: Updated!

For years I have been using in my classes several films from the “Americas” series, done by a group of academics and filmmakers and shown on PBS in 1992. At the time it was a great achievement, ten films which combined themes (economics, race/ethnicity, urbanization…

Three of My Favorite Films

Three of My Favorite Films

In my course on Latin American politics at Amherst, I invariably cover challenges to democracy such as populism, authoritarianism, and the less conventional topic of heteronormativity. Many films can be used to address these topics, but my favorites are: Eva Perón, O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias and XXY….

Algunas Películas

Algunas Películas

¿Mi película favorita del cine español? Dos: “La escopeta nacional”, de Luis García Berlanga, un delicioso y divertido fresco de personajes representativos de la España tardo-fraquista, estrenada en 1977. Franco había muerto dos años antes. Y “Volver” (2006), de Pedro Almodóvar…

Edifício Master: Another View

Edifício Master: Another View

For someone like me, who knows the names of fewer than half the people who live in her dormitory, it was all too easy to imagine living in Edifício Master, the twelve-story Copacabana apartment building featured in Eduardo Coutinho’s 2002 documentary of the same name…

Edifício Master: One View

Edifício Master: One View

Some movies seem to travel better than others. From the point of view of teaching a class on Brazilian cinema in a U.S. university to students with a wide range of backgrounds, it is never clear how they will interpret the tone of a scene or what jokes and references will get lost in translation…

Porr Gentileza

Porr Gentileza

Brazil has enjoyed a rich and independent tradition of documentary filmmaking from at least the first decade of the 20th century; over the past fifteen years, the country has witnessed a veritable explosion of documentary production in the national market. In fact, in 2005…

Long Live My All-Time Favorite Latin American Film!

Long Live My All-Time Favorite Latin American Film!

I’m rarely given to superlatives, especially those of the “all-time favorite” variety. My favorite color? Depends on the weather. My favorite ice cream flavor? Depends on what I had for lunch. My favorite Latin American movie? Depends on what happens to be consuming my…

Black Orpheus

Black Orpheus

In 1959, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival. With its haunting bossa nova soundtrack by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfá, the film became an international sensation. I saw it for the first time in 1962 while I was an undergraduate at Cambridge….

Tres Épocas, Tres Ópticas, Tres Promesas…

Tres Épocas, Tres Ópticas, Tres Promesas…

Como tantos otros de mi generación, me habría encantado que América Latina desarrollara un cine de gran pegada, que llegara cerca a los sueños de las multitudes. Lamentablemente no ha sido ése el medio cultural de masas más representativo de América Latina. Es otro…

Book Talk

The Idea of Cuba

The Idea of Cuba

First reactions to photographs are important. Photographs, in their slippery relationship to the observable world, often speak to us with quick impact, even before we can articulate to ourselves what they are saying. For photographers, or those who look at a lot of photography…

Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America

Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America

Democracies are messy—none so more than those across Latin America. A common refrain used by academics and journalists alike to describe those democracies is usually “weak,” or “fledgling.” And yet, in spite of endemic poverty, weak economies, rising security concerns…

Manifest Destinies and Indigenous Peoples

Manifest Destinies and Indigenous Peoples

This book is a tribute to the work of David Maybury-Lewis, the late and distinguished Professor Emeritus at Harvard’s Department of Anthropology, where I had the honor to be his student and advisee. It is his last book and a continuation of his life’s work: the examination…

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