The continent’s film productions are characterized by denouncing and exposing not only the social inequality suffered by the peoples, but especially their struggles and mobilizations against oppression
Andrés Enrique Alarcón *
At the beginning of the sixties, in Latin America a group of filmmakers broke borders and proposed to unify the ideas of cinematographic renovation, aware that the development of cinema depended on acting together. Thus emerged a project whose central idea was cultural decolonization through film production and distribution strategies that contributed to modifying the power relations imposed by the United States film industry.
In 1967 the so-called New Latin American Cinema, NCL, included some of its films in the V Festival of Latin American Cinema of Viña del Mar. There a meeting with Latin and Caribbean flavor was promoted, because until then they were seen sporadically in Festivals such as Venice , Pesaro or the Cannes Festival.
In Chile, 55 short and medium-length films were screened and there were 46 filmmakers from Latin America and the Caribbean; 15 Argentines, among them Fernando Birri and Octavio Getino; nine Brazilians, standing out Glauber Rocha and Nelson Pereira dos Santos; 11 Chileans, including Miguel Littín; two Cubans, Alfredo Guevara and Saúl Yélin; four Peruvians, four Uruguayans and Margot Benacerraf, Venezuelan and the only woman on the occasion.
Cuba aroused admiration not only for the Revolution and anti-imperialism, which spread rapidly and was reflected in areas apparently distant from the political scenes such as in the cinema, but also because it developed a cinematographic undertaking within the framework of the proposal to build socialism .
Adversity
Then, in the 1970s, marked by militarization by bayonet blows, human rights violations and censorship constituted a difficult scenario for the NCL. However, it denounced the abuses and some of its participants risked their lives in the direct and armed struggle against cruel dictatorships, risking being killed, imprisoned or tortured. It was in the midst of adversity that film festivals were re-produced as a way of resisting and proposing a new time of justice and freedom.
Alfredo Guevara, founder of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry, ICAIC, organized a meeting that generated the first Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana in 1979, resuming the cinematographic tradition with the proposal of responding to a cinema of justifying versions of imperialism , individualism and consumption.
Present
In fact, many things have changed in these years, including the way cinema is produced and appreciated. Today’s Latin American and Caribbean production is not the exclusive result of the ideas of the NCL. It is a time when cinema and audiovisuals have enormous communicational influence and on culture in general, linked to politics, the economy and development, but where capitalism transformed cinema into business.
New experiences and technological transformations, such as the creation of VHS video cameras, digital cinema and the internet, which facilitated the production process, were incorporated into its logic. Large theaters function strategically within shopping centers, linking the image of cinema to that of consumption.
Despite everything, cinema on this side of the world raised its quality. Hence the question: why is it so difficult to see a film made in our countries on the big screen? In April 2016 this was the topic of the panel “How to break distribution barriers in the Latin American market?” in the 5th edition of the Panama Film Festival, mediated by the director Pituka Ortega.
It was concluded that the main causes are difficult access to commercial cinemas, the absence of incentives for launches, advertising and distribution, and the fact of continuing in the midst of an unequal and historical contradiction with productions especially from Hollywood. It is necessary to demand common public policies to support filmmakers and producers. The similarities between this discussion and that of NCL members in the 1960s are not mere coincidence.
We must persist to include Latin productions in theaters -mainly those made without sponsorships- even if they do not stop traveling, appearing at independent festivals, especially in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey.
In the year of the pandemic
2020 was an atypical year. Filming had to adapt to the reality imposed by the pandemic. The same happened with festivals, which looked for online alternatives for the showing of films and holding workshops and debates. We will highlight two Cuban films from the recent shows and competitions: August, by Armando Capó and To half voiceby Patricia Pérez and Heidi Hassan.
August He tells us about the experiences of Carlos, a young man on vacation in the Cuban summer of 1994, in the middle of the special period and the so-called “Crisis de los Balseros”, when the United States reduced temporary visas for Cuban citizens. Many friendships were lost and families were fragmented by illegal egress in makeshift boats. The film premiered in late 2019 at the Toronto Film Festival. Later, it was officially launched at the San Sebastián Festival in Spain. It came to the Chicago Film Festival in the United States, the Latinoamerikanische Film Festival in Switzerland and the Athen International in Greece. But his great achievement is, without a doubt, his award for best debut film at the New Film Festival in Havana.
On the other hand, the documentary To half voice It is autobiographical and portrays the story of the two childhood friends who studied together at the Havana Film Academy. Through their correspondence, the episodes intersect identity, motherhood and creation. The two women, with strength and vitality, begin a personal and artistic discovery, marked by friendship and forgiveness.
The film was awarded in Brazil and in the United States, it was also awarded as Best Feature Film at the XXII edition of the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, IDFA, in the Netherlands and winner of the Choral Award for Best Documentary Feature at the International New Film Festival Latin American from Havana in 2019.
In the map
Despite current achievements, which deserve to be celebrated, we know that the fight for greater visibility for Latin American and Caribbean cinema must continue. The fruits we reap today are the result of a decades-long battle.
It began as an alliance between determined filmmakers, starting in Viña del Mar, and later reaffirmed in Cuba, starting a wave of important festivals that put our cinema on the map. These festivals are allies of guerrilla cinema, independent, which is made with few resources and which by inheritance comes to tell stories of our Latino people. Their joys, their pains, fears and frustrations.
Our cinema of denunciation, which exposes on the screen the social inequality that still exists. Our struggles, strikes, our losses and conquests. Our history as a Latin American and Caribbean people.
* Director of Audiovisual Art.
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