Latin+American+Film+History

Latin American Film History: Cinema of the 1980s

A. Early Silent Era
1. First film screening in Rio de Janeiro on July 8, 1896.

2. Bela epoca of Brazilian cinema: 1908-12

3. Profusion of documentaries and newsreels filmed during the Mexican Revolution and isolated initiatives across Latin America

4. However, the great offensive launched by Hollywood in the international marketplace after WWI took over the region, ending careers of pioneers.

5. Humberto Mauro in Brazil and Jose Agustin Ferreyra in Argentina generated praiseworthy work in spite of these circumstances

6. Mario Peixoto of Brazil, however, had little access to production resources and ended his career after //Limit// (1931).

B. Entrance of Sound
1. Technology of sound film was complex and required heavy investments to adapt theatres.

2. The U.S. worked to maintain Latin America as a profitable external market, shooting Spanish versions in Hollywood, first with subtitles and then dubbing.

3. Introduction of dialogue and music did give a new impluse to the main centers of film production (Brazil, Argentina, and MExico) resulting in a proliferation of musical comedies of carnival-like inspiration (//chanchadas),// tango films and the popular //comedias rancheros,// a genre imported from Mexico to countries such as Peru, Columbia, and Venezuela.

4. Industrial Mirage

5. Mexican Golden Age in 1940s (powerful star system with Cantinflas, Delores del Rio, Jorge Negrete, and Maria Felix and international credibility thanks to Emilio "Indio" Fernandez)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">6. Argentina and Brazil also had a star system, but few crossed national borders with success.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">7. Cinema industries in Mexico, Argentina, and Mexico managed to bear the brunt of Hollywood and still have the energy to compete with the Hollywood Studio System: director Bunuel was an international star in the 1950s

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">8. Certain realist and socially inspired traditions began to take shape in tune with aesthetic movements from abroad: John Grierson and the British documentary school influenced Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Ruiz and Venezuelan Margot Benacerraf. Italian Neorealism made a deeper impact on many directors in the region (studied in Italy).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">C. Blooming of the new Latin American Cinemas in the 1960s
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. Innovative international film movement with social and political concerns

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2. New European cinemas

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">3. cinema verite and North American direct cinema

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4. Cuban Revolution brought the Cuban Institute of Cinema (ICAIC) in 1959

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">5. cinema novo: even deeper in the realist tradition, more openly political and modern in language. Rooted in the reality and history of the country --frequently through the adaptation of some literary classics--this movement would satisfactorily blend the breakaway aspirations--at a political as well as aesthetic level--of what was beginning to be known as New Latin American Cinema, a cinema that valued national cinema. (grew out of Italian Neo-Realism, French New Wave, and direct cinema approaches--"A camera in the hand and an idea in the head"=Brazilian phrase encapsulating approach)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">1. Foundation of the Havana Film Festival and International Film and Television School in San Antonio de los Banos in Cuba

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">2. Economic collapse in 1990s made it difficult for promising young filmmakers

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">3. Exiles from Latin American countries, such as Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Haiti in Hollywood and Europe (see Luis Puenzo, Hector Babenco, Alfonso Cuaron, and Guillermo del Toro)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4. Hollywood competition not as crucial to the tranformations of Latin American cinema as the television industry producing whole continent soap-operas (culebrones, etc.)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">5. Co-productions with European Institutions: //La Nacion clendestina// (Jorge Sanjines, Bolivia/Spain), for example

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">6. Academy Award winners and Commercial Blockbusters: //La historia oficial// (Luis Puenzo, Argentina, 1984), //Like Water for Chocolate// (Alfonso Arau, Mexico, 1991), and //Central Station// (Walter Salles, Brazil/France, 1997)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">7. Government involvement in financing: Bolivia in December 1991, Venezuela in September 1993, and Argentina in September 1994, for example.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">8. Severe crises of the 1980s, a period marked by general economic recession, ended in March 1990 with President Collor de Mello dismantling Embrafilme, a partially privatized company linked to the Ministry of Culture in Brazil--last stronghold for the castaways of cinema novo. In 1995, various titles by the Barreto family (such as //Foreign Land,// 1995) and Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas highlighted a bright future.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">9. Young Filmmakers from around the region: Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Argresti, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Lucrecia Martel and Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, for example.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">10. Digital media and concept of Latin American cinema itself (continental project?)

//The Lion’s Den// (Peru, Franciso J. Lombardi, 1988)


//Demasiado miedo a la vida o Plaff// (Cuba, Juan Carlos Tabio, 1988)



The //Clandestine Nation// (Bolivia, Jorge Sanjines 1989)

**[|clandestine nation article]**

Film Screening: //The Official Story// (Luis Puenzo, 1985)

Assignment: Read introduction to //Indiewood, USA// and packet reading from //American Independent Film// for next week and prepare for EC.



[|Argentina's Dirty War] [|overview of the dirty war]

[|Bolivia in the 1980s]

[|Sources of Argentine Financial Collapse in 2001]

[|history of Mexico 3]

[|Latin American History Timeline]

[|Latin American Cinema PPT]

[|Latin American Cinema links]

[|From Third World to Latin American Film]