Latin American Cinema

Paper Summary:

The paper examines "Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America" where King attempts to explore how nationalism and the regional identity of Latin America have evolved along with the growth of cinema. The paper outlines the main discussions in the book and identifies its weaknesses. The paper concludes that while the work is a valuable overview to a neglected subject area, it does not do justice to the whole of the region and does not enable the region's artists to be rendered in their own context, but instead seen through a Western gaze.

From the Paper:

"Increasingly, scholars are focused on analyzing art, including cinematic art, not in the abstract, but as a cultural product or artifact. However, in doing so, an interesting question is raised: is the culture of a society to be studied as merely a 'national' product, when that construct itself is somewhat problematic, given the difficulty of determining national borders in a postcolonial world, where the former European imperial powers drew the border lines of those nations? Or is it too subsuming of local differences to speak of, for example, a 'Latin American' identity? As its title indicates, Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America by the cultural historian John King offers the thesis that studying Latin America as a cultural project is valuable, because it highlights some of the unexplored and under-examined aspects of Latin American cinematic culture and the films produced in once-overlooked nations of the region. However, because of the limitations of available documentary evidence, King is to a degree forced to repeat the mistakes of previous studies of this region, namely to focus only on countries with political controversies of interest to the West, or upon films that drew international acclaim and attention."

Sample of Sources Used:

• King, John. Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America. Critical Studies in Latin American and Iberian Cultures. London: Verso, 2000.

More papers on Latin American Cinema:

• Research Paper # 105364 : "Brazilian Cinema"
• Research Paper # 24994 : "Walt Disney And The Latin American Market"
• Term Paper # 105497 : "Film Making in Brazil"

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