New Documentaries in Latin America: (Global Cinema)

Nonfiction cinema in Latin America has undergone remarkable changes in the last thirty years. Documentary film was part of the ambitious movements that helped shape the region's cinematic landscape half a century ago, and it has for many years influenced socially committed filmmaking worldwide. The past three decades have taken this tradition in new directions. In this volume, contributors highlight the significance of recent Latin American documentaries and explore contrasts and parallels with works made in previous decades. Examining the vast breadth and diversity of contemporary documentary production, while also situating nonfiction film and video within the cultural, political, and socio-economic history of the region, this book addresses topics such as documentary aesthetics, indigenous media, and transnational filmmaking.

Table of Contents:
Introduction PART I: AESTHETICS AND POLITICS 1. A Poetics of the Trace; Ana M. Lopez 2. First-Person Documentary and the New Political Subject: Enunciation, Recent History, and the Present in New Argentine Cinema; Antonio Gomez 3. Under the Surface of the Image: Cultural Narrative, Symbolic Landscapes, and National Identity in the Films of Jorge de Leon and Armando Capo; Ruth Goldberg 4. Performance in Brazilian Documentaries; Vinicius Navarro 5. Narrative, Visibility, and Trauma in Bus 174; Cecilia Sayad 6. Residual Images and Political Time: Memory and History in Chile, Obstinate Memory and City of Photographers; Jose Miguel Palacios PART II: COMMUNITY AND INDIGENOUS MEDIA 7. Reenact, Reimagine: Performative Indigenous Documentaries of Bolivia and Brazil; Amalia Cordova 8. An Other Documentary is Possible: Indy Solidarity Video and Aesthetic Politics; Freya Schiwy 9. Chilean Political Documentary Video of the 1980s; Antonio Traverso and German Linero PART III: LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND TRANSNATIONAL DIALOGUES 10. Bolivia in View; Michael Chanan 11. Intimate Spaces and Migrant Imaginaries: Sandra Gomez, Susana Barriga, and Heidi Hassan; Susan Lord and Zaira Zarza 12. Documentary on Wheels: Car Culture in Karen Rossi's Isla Chatarra; Juan Carlos Rodriguez 13. Rasquache Mockumentary: Alex Rivera's Why Cybraceros?; Debra A. Castillo

About the Author :
Vinicius Navarro is Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. Juan Carlos Rodriguez is Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

Review :
"This is a collection of very insightful, well-informed, and compelling analyses authored by leading scholars in the field of Latin American documentary filmmaking. Theoretically engaged with rigorous contextualization, New Documentaries in Latin America provides an important contribution to a growing field within Latin American Film Studies." - Miriam Haddu, Senior Lecturer, Mexican Visual Culture, University of London, UK, and author of Contemporary Mexican Cinema, 1989-1999: History, Space, and Identity "Compelling and far-reaching, New Documentaries in Latin America provides a much-needed examination of the astounding documentary output of Latin America in the past three decades. The volume's wide-ranging essays offer nuanced perspectives on important and innovative documentary makers in the region that include established filmmakers like Patricio Guzman and Eduardo Coutinho; lesser-knowns like Karen Rossi and Susana Barriga; and media collectives like Chile's Camara en Mano and Mexico's Mal de Ojo TV. The breadth of practices covered invites an updating of previous histories of documentary in Latin America and expands our understanding of the use of video by activist and community organizations, indigenous groups, and regionally focused production arrangements." - Cristina Venegas, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA