The Trans/national Cultural Economy of Latin American Film Musicals (1930s-50s)

This essay traces the tensions between national imaginaries and transnational global media flows of tango, samba, and ranchera film musicals, taking into account their cross-media and intercultural configurations as well as interconnections between these three “transgenres.” From a comparative perspective and by means of a “histoire croisée,” or crisscrossing history, it touches upon developments in early Latin American sound film, Hollywood’s Spanishlanguage films and its Pan-Americanism, Spain’s cinematic Hispanoamericanismo, and Pan-Latin American film productions. The essay makes a case for the multifaceted trans/national cultural economy of the tango, samba, and ranchera film musical productions during their main phase, in the 1930s and 40s.

Content characterization of Latin American film productions on Netflix: a Bolivian perspective

We study international film flows between Bolivia and Latin America to explore the lack of Bolivian content on Netflix and its limited presence in other SVOD platforms. We characterize Netflix originals, third-party content, and recent Bolivian films, and develop a thematic analysis of their synopsis and genre description, completed with the results of a survey on the Bolivian consumption of streaming content. We identify common patterns in Netflix content and show how it differs from the more nationally minded Bolivian cinematic tradition. Our results point to a homogenizing effect SVOD platforms like Netflix might have on film productions.

The Double Day of Valeria Sarmiento

Though sometimes rightly hailed as one of Latin America’s most important women directors, Valeria Sarmiento is more frequently referred to as the wife (now widow) and closest collaborator of Raúl Ruiz. Since Ruiz’s death in 2011, she has been completing his unfinished films. At the same time, she continues directing her own projects. This essay unpacks her unique creative partnership—working as an editor for her husband while simultaneously striving to direct her own work—as a “double day,” a concept that serves to interrogate the multiple (often unrecognized) tasks demanded of female filmmakers in relation to modes of production developed outside the boundaries of the nation-state, at the interstices of European and Latin American film and television industries. The article examines the interconnections between the gendered division of labor in filmmaking and the precarious mobilities that result from exile.

La ambigüedad de lo trágico: reflexión de la incidencia política, económica y social del cine en Colombia

Resumen: Una de las mayores dificultades que sufren los historiadores del cine (latinoamericano y colombiano en particular) es la falta de fuentes de información confiables, y la escasez de material histórico concluyente. En tal sentido, el presente documento se dirige a ampliar las indagaciones documentales sobre el fenómeno fílmico colombiano, por medio del análisis de la relación dialéctica entre el contexto nacional y las investigaciones históricas, estéticas y narrativas, consolidadas en proyectos cinematográficos nacionales y latinoamericanos; en este sentido, el objetivo fundamental es el reconocer de manera reflexiva la incidencia histórica, social, política y económica en el cine colombiano y su representación del entorno, concluyendo que el arte en general y el cine especialmente ha intentado reflexionar sobre las vicisitudes sociales y tal intención ha sido influida por factores externos como las condiciones económicas transnacionales o intereses desligados al quehacer cultural. Abstract: One of the greatest difficulties experienced by film historians (Latin American and Colombian in particular) is the lack of reliable sources of information and the shortage of conclusive historical material. In this regard, this document, through an extensive literature review, aims to expand documentary research on the Colombian film phenomenon, through the analysis of the dialectical relationship between the national context and historical, aesthetic and narrative research, consolidated in national and Latin American film projects; In this sense, the fundamental objective is to reflectively recognize the historical, social, political and economic impact on Colombian cinema and its representation of the environment.