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The Outsiders Pathways of Migratory Experience in Latin American Films (film review)

In the past several decades the theme of migration has continually recurred in the cinema of and about Latin America, and it is not difficult to see why it is a popular topic in a region characterized by rapid upheavals in political, economic, and cultural circumstances. In the midst of flux and change, movement is transformed into something more than an urgent necessity. It is a reflex; it becomes one of the few ways that one can make sense of the ever-shifting world. Indeed, we can even speak of the aesthetics of migration itself and suggest that cinema is well suited to depicting and contemplating that experience of traversal within and across national borders; the medium is capable of capturing grand vistas and broad swaths of space and time, along with attending to the minute details of daily life and daily struggle. The more familiar manifestations of this theme come with the cycle of films, almost a subgenre unto themselves, that chronicle the danger-filled journeys of migrants toward the global North. In films like El norte (1983) and Sin nombre (2009) the border between Mexico and the United States serves as a kind of finish line at the end of a perilous [...]

2016-07-29T15:27:53+00:00
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Migration, Regional Traditions, and the Intricacy of Documentary Representation in Cuates de Australia and La chica del sur (film review)

By: Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli Approaches to telling a story are, of course, abundant. Latin American filmmakers borrow from all kinds of artistic traditions—literature, pop music, the plastic arts, home movies, etc. What makes this borrowing both draining and stimulating is that the web offers an excess of examples to draw from. Further, digital production and online distribution are cultivating a new kinship among filmmakers, visual traditions, and viewers across the world. This is a daunting realization that the current crop of young filmmakers is trying to grapple with. Two recent documentary films from Mexico and Argentina bring the topic of social and cultural migration into focus, giving international audiences the opportunity to enter otherwise inaccessible worlds. Cuates de Australia (Drought) from Mexico and La chica del sur (The Girl from the South) from Argentina display contrasting approaches to portraying the hardships of relocation. Both documentaries follow their protagonists’ journeys from the place they call home to an unfamiliar land and their bittersweet return. Cuates de Australia, directed by Everardo González, is an enigmatic film. It goes out of its way to remain removed from its subject, but it cannot help but become enamored of its own rendition of it. This essential quality works in the film’s favor, since it creates sequences of great tenderness and anguish. [...]

2020-05-10T19:59:23+00:00
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Homo artis, Homo laborans, and Homo politicus – The Pursuit of Redemption in Three Recent Argentine Films (film review)

By: Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli One cannot be short of themes while there is still plenty of reality. Any hour of the day, any place, any person, is a subject for narrative if the narrator is capable of observing and illuminating all these collective elements by exploring their interior value. —Cesare Zavattini Armando Bo’s feature film debut The Last Elvis (El último Elvis) is a refreshing addition to recent Argentine releases. Bo is the grandson of Armando Bo Senior, the director of the soft-porn pulp classics of Isabel “La Coca” Sarli (Fiebre, 1972, and Carne, 1968). He appears to share his grandfather’s fascination with the malcontent antiheroes that are ever present in our bustling Latin American cities. The Last Elvis follows the misadventures of Carlos Gutiérrez (John McInerny) over a period of a few days. Carlos makes his living impersonating Elvis Presley, singing at private parties and neighborhood fairs. During the day Carlos (who insists on being called “Elvis,” as if the name were a title of nobility) works in an appliance factory. It is unclear whether he and his fellow workers on the line are assembling new appliances or refurbishing outmoded ones. His factory job speaks volumes about his own path as [...]

2016-05-24T01:41:59+00:00
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Latin American Perspectives, founded in 1974, is a theoretical and scholarly journal for discussion and debate on the political economy of capitalism, imperialism, and socialism in the Americas. Most issues focus on a single problem, nation, or region, providing an in-depth look from participants and scholars throughout the Americas.

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