This Day School followed the screenings of The Second Mother and Güeros earlier in the programme. The day explored themes and approaches to filmmaking across Latin America with a full screening of Las acacias (Argentina/Spain 2011).
These three films from Brazil, Mexico and Argentina represent the output of the three biggest film industries in the region but there has also been an upsurge in the smaller industries of Chile, Columbia and Venezuela in the last few years as well as films from Ecuador and Uruguay. Cuba remains important as the home of the principal Film Festival in the region in Havana as well as a possible training and education centre for Latin American filmmakers. In many cases, local productions are made as part of co-production deals with Spain. The existence of a large and growing Hispanic market in the United States is also an important factor for many productions.
Latin America, alongside East Asia is one of the parts of the world where film audiences as well as the number of local productions are growing. The day will try to distinguish some of the main genres and themes of recent Latin American Cinema as well as discussing Las acacias in detail as an example of a film from a first time filmmaker that impressed festival audiences all around the world.
The notes for the day school can be downloaded here as a pdf: Latin America Day School Notes
The Case for Global Film 