Poetics and Politics of Latin American Cinema, 1960-present 4219-SD174
As a mass medium, cinema has played a fundamental role in debates on modern cultural politics. Yet few regions have a tradition of political cinema as strong as Latin America, whose turbulent twentieth century followed from its violent colonial history. In this context of underdevelopment, cinema represented an experience of modernity to which governments throughout the region aspired. States harnessed cinema’s power to shape their national communities and demonstrate their progress to their citizenry and the world. As the promise of modernity, cinema became an ideological battleground.
This course examines the ties that bind cinema and politics from the Cold War to the present, paying attention to US-Latin American relations throughout this history. Beginning with the Cuban Revolution, an event that reverberated throughout the Americas for decades, the first unit centers on the radical cinemas of the 1960s and 1970s. We will study how these filmmakers contested the influence of Hollywood and reimagined cinematic aesthetics in the service of the revolutionary project. The second unit considers the aftershocks of radical cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, following the suppression of militant movements by dictatorships and US influence. We will examine how Latin American cinema began to transform under the effects of globalization and neoliberal policies, and how filmmakers registered the new forms of precarity that emerged from these political and economic transformations. The third and final unit focuses on Latin American cinema in the new millennium, highlighting transformations to politics after the downfall of the revolutionary project. Themes in this unit include the historical memory of dictatorship, the emergence of new political identities grounded in gender and race, the contemporary migrant crisis, and transnational representations of narco-trafficking.
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
• Student is familiar with contemporary Latin American cinema, including its recent history, representative films and filmmakers, formal trends, and major themes.
• Student possesses knowledge of the modern history of Latin America, from the Cold War to the present, with specific knowledge relating to the region’s experience of nationalism, revolutionary movements, dictatorship, globalization, neoliberalism, migration, and identity politics.
• Student is familiar with inter-American relations during and after the Cold War, including specific knowledge of the relationship between the United States and Latin America.
• Student is aware of contemporary trends in the discipline.
Skills
• Student can analyze films to draw connections between national contexts and academic disciplines using the basic methodological framework of area studies.
• Student can identify the relationship between cinema and politics using the basic methodological framework of cultural studies.
• Student can analyze and discuss different types of films, including narrative, documentary, and experimental, using a basic critical vocabulary.
• Student can independently identify and gather information, process it, and effectively communicate their insight in the form of an oral presentation and written essay.
Social Competencies
• Student can effectively communicate their ideas and respect their peers’ opinions when participating in group discussion.
• Student can lead a group of their peers in discussion.
• Student can navigate complex social topics relating to gender, racial, and ethnic difference.
Assessment criteria
Two short essays: 30 points (15 each)
Final essay: 35 points
Presentation (leading group discussion): 20 points
Attendance and participation: 15 points
Grading scale: 100-90 (5) / 89-80 (4+) / 79-70 (4) / 69-60 (3+) / 59-51 (3) / 50-0 (2)
Bibliography
Amores perros. Dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Blood of the Condor. Dir. Jorge Sanjines.
Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing About Film.
Embrace of the Serpent. Dir. Ciro Guerra.
Fauna. Dir. Nicolas Pereda.
Fernandez Retamar, Roberto. "Caliban: Notes Toward a Discussion of Culture in Our America."
Garcia Espinosa, Julio. "For an Imperfect Cinema."
Gomez Barris, Macarena. Where Memory Dwells: Culture and State Violence in Chile.
The Hour of the Furnaces. Dir. Fernando Solanas & Octavio Getino.
The Jackal of Nahueltoro. Dir. Miguel Littin.
Land in Anguish. Dir. Glauber Rocha.
de Leon, Jason. The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail.
Memories of Underdevelopment. Dir. Tomas Gutierrez Alea.
Nostalgia for the Light. Dir. Patricio Guzman.
Purgatorio: A Journey into the Heart of the Border. Dir. Rodrigo Reyes.
Quay Hutchinson, Elizabeth et al. "The Chilean Road to Socialism: Reform and Revolution."
Quijano, Anibal. "Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality."
Richard, Nelly. "The Reconfigurations of Post-Dictatorship Critical Thought."
Rocha, Glauber. "The Aesthetics of Hunger."
Rodrigo D: No Future. Dir. Victor Gaviria.
Roma. Dir. Alfonso Cuaron.
Skidmore, Thomas E. & Peter H. Smith. Modern Latin America.
Solanas, Fernando & Octavio Getino. "Towards a Third Cinema."
Zavala, Oswaldo. Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: