Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas - Volume 15, Issue 3, 2018

Sometimes criticized for the film’s emphasis on delay and ‘dead time’, the present analysis suggests a reading of the seemingly stagnant plot-line of Mariana Rondón’s Pelo malo/Bad Hair (2013) as an effective rhetorical strategy for interpellating viewers into the ‘sideways’ time of queer childhood – a theoretical framework established by Kathryn Bond Stockton – to explore the intersectional processes at work in the subject formation of Junior, the film’s 9-year-old Afro-Venezuelan protagonist. In contrast to most contemporary Latin American films with child protagonists that serve as embodiments of history, Rondón refuses viewers this temporal distance to depict a child undergoing ghostly erasure by the patriarchal mechanisms that dictate the terms of a nation’s history and citizenship.

Vidas secas/Barren Lives (dos Santos, 1963) and La hora de los hornos/The Hour of the Furnaces (Getino and Solanas, 1968) made fierce denunciations of poverty in Brazil and Argentina, respectively, such that non-human animals were central to their critiques. Although the directors likely intended those animals (often depicted suffering and dying) to merely metaphorize human suffering, I argue that they become agents of discourse themselves, thanks to cinematic language (even though the use of verbal language is precisely what defines the ontological separation of human animals from non-human animals). Although montage has been historically understood as a device of metaphor, in these films it allows for the representation of very literal commonalities in the suffering experienced by all on-screen bodies, irrespective of species. Drawing viewers’ attention to animal suffering on its own terms can thus broaden the discourses of liberation and compassion inherent to Cinema Novo and ‘Third Cinema’.

This article focuses on the cinema of César González, a filmmaker born and raised in a villa miseria (shantytown) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Thanks to digital film technology, González has been able to make his own films in and of the slums without external mediations. This article examines how his films can be thought of as a ‘line of flight’ or escape from the dominant representations of marginalized sectors of society. Using digital technology, in general, and long takes, more specifically, González creates cinematic experiences in which the villero (the slum dweller) becomes an open subject whose agency is reaffirmed.

Desde los inicios del siglo veintiuno, el estado colombiano ha buscado fomentar la producción fílmica colombiana con las leyes 814 del 2003 y la ley 1556 del 2012. La política de apoyo al cine colombiano hizo posible el surgimiento de la productora Dynamo (2006) que, en los últimos once años ha tenido gran actividad doméstica e internacional. Este artículo analiza las producciones de Dynamo como una forma de investigar su aporte al cine colombiano y/o la industria del cine de Colombia. El repaso de las producciones de Dynamo permite explorar la efectividad y el alcance de las leyes 814 y 1556.

(Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, Colombia has attempted to promote film production through legal measures: Law 814 in 2003 and Law 1556 in 2012. Official state support for Colombian cinema made possible the appearance in 2006 of the production company Dynamo; in the past eleven years it has been an active agent domestically and internationally. This article analyses Dynamo’s productions in order to assess its contributions to Colombian cinema and to the Colombian film industry. A review of Dynamo’s productions allows for the exploration of the effectivity and impact of Laws 814 and 1556.)

On the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas looks at the dynamics that shape one of the region’s principal film festivals. This dossier profiles some of the key alliances that have contributed towards its longevity and success; the overview of the festival’s history is followed by an interview with its founding director, Daniela Michel, and concludes with external views by two influential film historians: Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro and Josetxo Cerdán. Each has participated in festival juries and related activities and, jointly, they reflect national and international perspectives on the significance of the Morelia Festival. In profiling FICM our objective is to understand the place and influence of Latin American film festivals more generally as gatekeepers but also catalysts for the production, distribution and reception of local productions in regional and global markets.

Tracing the historical development of the Morelia Film Festival from a ‘national’ perspective, this article focuses on the local roots of FICM’s development. These include an emphasis on local competitive awards for Mexican shorts, documentaries and feature-length films; the network of Mexican institutions and influential local entrepreneurs and politicians. The article concludes with a discussion of the festival’s unique spotlight on artists and films connected to the Michoacán region of which Morelia is state capital.

This article highlights the particular centrality of the competitive film documentary category at the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). The Spanish film programmer and scholar notes the significance of FICM in providing an important showcase for Mexican documentaries while also stabilizing an international circuit for the circulation of Mexican films for international festival.

Director of Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia (FICM) Daniela Michel looks back over the festival’s history, commenting on its origins as a biannual showcase for Mexican short films. Begun in 1994, the Jornadas de Cortometraje Mexicano (Sessions of Mexican Short Films) that Michel coorganized at Mexico City’s Cineteca Nacional, provided important exposure to aspiring Mexican filmmakers at the beginning of their careers. Michel discusses the festival’s underlying philosophy as it contributes to the enrichment and expansion of Mexican cinema for national and international audiences.

The Child in Spanish Cinema, Sarah Wright (2013) Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 200 pp., ISBN 9-780-71909-052-3, h/bk, £70; 240 pp., ISBN 9-781-78499-379-5, p/bk, £16.99; ISBN 9-781-52610-320-8, eBook, £78.00

El niño en el cine argentino de la postdictadura (1983–2008): alegoría y nostalgia, Sophie Dufays (2014) Woodbridge, Suffolk: Tamesis, 386 pp., ISBN 9-781-85566-285-8, h/bk, $99

Children on the Threshold in Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Nature, Gender, and Agency, Rachel Randall (2017) Lanham, MD and London: Lexington Books, 284 pp., ISBN 978-1-49855-513-5, h/bk, $105 (£70); ISBN 978-1-49855-514-2, eBook, $99.50 (£65)

Spanish Lessons: Cinema and Television in Contemporary Spain, Paul Julian Smith (2017) New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 168 pp., ISBN: 9-781-78533-108-4, h/bk, $95.00

Ghostly Landscapes: Film, Photography, and the Aesthetics of Haunting in Contemporary Spanish Culture, Patricia M. Keller (2016) Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 280 pp., ISBN 9-781-44264-888-3, h/bk, $65.00

Spanish Erotic Cinema, Santiago Fouz-Hernández (ed.) (2018) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 249 pp., ISBN 9-781-47440-047-3, h/bk, £75 ISBN 9-781-47444-096-7, p/bk, £24.99 ISBN 9-781-47440-048-0, eBook, £75

Cosmopolitan Film Cultures in Latin America: 1896–1960, Rielle Navitski and Nicolas Poppe (eds) (2017) Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 376 pp., ISBN 9-780-25302-646-0, p/bk, $38.00

Pantallas Transnacionales: El Cine Argentino Y Mexicano Del Período Clásico, Ana Laura Lusnich, Alicia Aisemberg and Andrea Cuarterolo (eds) (2017) Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi, 480 pp., ISBN 9-789-50793-256-4, $420 ARS

Afetos, Relações e Encontros Com Filmes Brasileiros Contemporâneos, Denilson Lopes (2017) São Paulo: Hucitec Editora, 200 pp., ISBN 9-788-58404-096-4, $52 BRS

Queer Mexico: Cinema and Television since 2000, Paul Julian Smith (2017) Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 176 pp., ISBN 9-780-81434-274-9, p/bk, $35.99