Contemporary Latin American Cinema

This title traces the emergence of a transnational film tradition. Several Latin American films enjoyed an unprecedented level of critical and commercial success in the world film market. These films were considered transnational as they benefited from substantial external capital or creative input. Followed in the 2000s by a series of equally critical and/or commercially successful 'deterritorialised' films by some of the same directors, the incipient transnationalism of the first films and the directors' position in international cinema was confirmed. This book incorporates the Latin America/Hollywood and Indiewood vector of filmmaking into its study of the region's transnationalised filmmaking. It argues that although undoubtedly 'commercial,' films produced either within, or under the structures of Hollywood are not necessarily apolitical nor totally divorced from key notions of national or continental identity. Tierney shows that it is the auteurist nature of many of these deterritorialised transnational films which plays a key role in their ability to engage with issues of national and continental identity and to forge a transnational tradition beyond the geospatial limits of the region. To support its arguments about the transnational trend, the book uses textual analysis and industrial case studies looking both at the directors who have influenced the trend. It discusses films such as Amores Perros, Y tu Mama Tambien, Cidade de Deus, Central do Brasil, Nueve Reinas and El Hijo de la Novia. It studies the careers of directors including Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, Fernando Meirelles, Walter Salles.Author BiographyDolores Tierney is a lecturer in Film Studies at Sussex University.