Latin movies as a critical reflection of our Latin culture

The film industries of Latin America are at the same time diverse and too complex. The main centers of production have been Brazil, México and Cuba, is characteristic of this kind of cinema address topics related to conflicts or problematic proper of Latin phenomena.

 History of Latin American cinema has as common factor the process and consequences by dictatorship, and a particular political thought. Latin cinema is a reflection of our latin culture, our deficiencies and problematics, but these vary between different countries.

In Brazil, for example, filmmakers created a Cinema Novo movement, a particular way of making movies with critical and intellectual screenplays and a revolutionary political message. An iconic movie of this kind of cinema is “Cidade de Deus” (City of god). This movie tells the story of several people who live in a favela in Rio de Janeiro over almost thirty years, between ‘60 and ’80. The same filming was too heavy, because it was conditioned by power relations of this underworld: the filmmakers had to request the assistance of the chief of the favela to film in their area and thus provide adequate security conditions to perform the filming.

In Chile, many films are of this line. After and during the dictatorship were filmed many documentals and art films related with the offenses committed in this period. Likewise, the topics characteristics are the poverty, crime, abuse and inequality, all of this problems of our country.