Globalization and Latin American Cinema: Toward a New Critical Paradigm

555 Pages·2018·5.076 MB·English

by  Sophia A. McClennen

Globalization and
Latin American
Cinema
Toward a New
Critical Paradigm
SOPHIA A. McCLENNEN
PALGRAVE STUDIES
IN GLOBALIZATION,
CULTURE & SOCIETY
Palgrave Studies in Globalization,
Culture and Society
Series Editors
Jeroen de Kloet
Centre for Globalisation Studies
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Esther Peeren
Centre for Globalisation Studies
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society traverses the
boundaries between the humanities and the social sciences to critically
explore the cultural and social dimensions of contemporary globalization
processes. This entails looking at the way globalization unfolds through
and within cultural and social practices, and identifying and understand-
ing how it effects cultural and social change across the world. The series
asks what, in its different guises and unequal diffusion, globalization
is taken to be and do in and across specific locations, and what social,
political and cultural forms and imaginations this makes possible or ren-
ders obsolete. A particular focus is the vital contribution made by differ-
ent forms of the imagination (social, cultural, popular) to the conception,
experience and critique of contemporary globalization. Palgrave Studies
in Globalization, Culture and Society is committed to addressing globali-
zation across cultural contexts (western and non-western) through inter-
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Sophia A. McClennen
Globalization
and Latin American
Cinema
Toward a New Critical Paradigm
Sophia A. McClennen
Pennsylvania State University
State College, PA, USA
Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society
ISBN 978-3-319-57059-4 ISBN 978-3-319-57060-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57060-0
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Cover illustration: Still from Sleep Dealer, dir. Alex Rivera
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In memory of Stefan Kaspar and René Castillo,
who both shared their love of Latin American cinema with me
And for my aunt Stephania,
who loves to think outside of the box
P
reface
I have been writing this book forever. Or at least it feels that way. Over
the past years, when having a post-panel drink at conferences and dis-
cussing this book project, I’ve often joked with colleagues that I’ve
been working on this book since they’ve known me. And it’s usually not
an exaggeration. The research on this project goes back to my time as
a graduate student in the 1990s at Duke University when I considered
working on a topic connected to Latin American film for my dissertation
only to have Fred Jameson counsel me to write on “books” for the diss
and save films for a later project.
Luckily I took his advice. Because despite the fact that I was gathering
research and tracing trends related to globalization and Latin American
films beginning in the mid-1990s, the truth is that in those early days
after the fall of the Berlin Wall we were still largely speculating about
what the global era would really mean for the culture industry. As this
book shows, a lot of our speculations were, if not hyperbolic, then flatly
wrong. Letting this book simmer while working on other projects means
that I now have the benefit of hindsight and of 25 years’ worth of data,
much of which dispels the 1990s worries that globalization would end
up leading us all toward one homogenous culture. As I argue through-
out this book, beginning in the 1990s we bundled worries about cul-
tural homogenization and cultural imperialism with worries about what
neoliberal capitalism would mean to communities across Latin America.
What this book shows is that neoliberalism has been just as devastat-
ing as we imagined, but that it has had an uncanny effect on the culture
vii
viii PREFACE
industry, actually making it possible for a number of Latin American
nations to develop some of their strongest film markets ever. It has also
opened the door for a number of films that take neoliberalism and its
effects directly as their topic, films that have often been huge successes
internationally, at awards ceremonies, and also at home. That synergy is
historic. This is the first time in Latin American history that a socially
significant cinema has been successful in global markets, at home, and
with awards. It has never been true until the global era and it embod-
ies a key dialectical tension: Global capital upends the daily lives of Latin
Americans at unprecedented levels at exactly the same time that Latin
American filmmakers have the most success telling that story to the
world. Trying to make sense of that is what this book is all about.
Because the research for this book spanned so many years, I had the
benefit of multiple research trips to gather material, screen films, and
make connections. I was able to attend the Chilean film festival in Viña
del Mar in 1993 when Johnny cien pesos (Johnny One Hundred Pesos,
1993) was featured. I sat in the audience with Cuban acting legend
Daisy Granados and witnessed firsthand the rebirth of one of the most
important film festivals in Latin America. The festival had helped launch
the New Latin American Cinema (NLAC) movement in 1967 only to
be shut down in 1970. It reopened in 1990. I will always be grateful to
Chilean writer Carlos Franz for helping to get us tickets to the premiere.
I next visited the Guadalajara Film Festival twice in the late 1990s and
was able to see films like La ley de Herodes (Herod’s Law, 1999) and Todo
el poder ([All the power], 2000), which, like Johnny cien pesos, combined
an entertaining aesthetic with a socially significant cinema. These were
not the gritty, edgy, political films of the 1960s, but they weren’t total
fluff either. I then visited the San Sebastián film festival in 2016 and was
able to see the extremely complex ways the festival is working to pro-
mote cinema in the Spanish language at the same time that it supports
Basque culture.
I held a Fulbright Scholarship to Lima, Peru in 2003, where I had the
good fortune to meet Stefan Kaspar. He had been a founding member of
Grupo Chaski and helped connect me with the entire team as well as lead
actors Marino León (Gregorio, 1982) and Rosa Isabel Morfino (Juliana,
1989). The various conversations I had with the directors and film pro-
fessionals connected to Grupo Chaski greatly shaped my approach to this
book. Stefan had a fiery passion for Latin American film and a generous
spirit. He will be sorely missed.
PREFACE ix
I was awarded a Fulbright Research Chair in Globalization and
Cultural Studies at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,
2005–06, which allowed me to spend concentrated time wading
through considerable material and continuing to craft the core the-
ses of this book. In 2010, I had a research trip supported by the Penn
State Institute for the Arts and Humanities to Tijuana, Mexico where
I again had the benefit of an industry insider taking me under his wing.
René Castillo, who worked at the film school of the Universidad de las
Californias Internacional, helped arrange a series of meetings and inter-
views that allowed me to study the filming of Titanic and the runaway
film industry in general. He and his colleague, Carlos Carrillo, were
exceptionally supportive. But it would be René’s tireless commitment to
the film industry, similar to Stefan’s, that would most deeply inspire me.
Dedicating this book to their memories is a small gesture toward two
men who were real forces of nature in Latin American cinema. They each
taught me that the boundaries between national cinema and Hollywood
that framed my early research made no sense in their daily context.
In 2013, I had a sabbatical that allowed me to spend a semester in
Buenos Aires, Argentina and really advance my work on this book. Before
leaving, Tamara Falicov, Sergio Waisman, and Idelber Avelar all graciously
helped give me useful contacts. Tamara helped connect me with Adrián
Muoyo at the Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA).
I was able to find considerable material of value in their archives. On that
trip I was also able to interview director Martín Rejtman, Patagonik pro-
ducer Juan Vera, and indie producer Hernán Musaluppi. I connected
with scholars like Gonzalo Aguilar and Silvia Schwarzböck and I met
with folks engaged with advancing MERCOSUR cultural projects as well
as the director of Ventana Sur. It was an immensely productive trip that
proved—at least for me—why humanities professors need sabbaticals to
travel for their work. In the summer of 2015 I traveled to Madrid to con-
nect with Ibermedia and to Rome to visit the Centro Sperimentale and
Cinecittà. There, as I walked through sets that had been built to film
Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002), I was able to confirm some
of my thoughts on runaways that I had begun to develop in Tijuana.
Penn State brought Alex Rivera, director of Sleep Dealer, out twice
while I was working on this project. It would not be an understatement
to say that his film literally framed the ideas in this book. As I told him
when we met, Sleep Dealer is a “perfect” example of what I am describ-
ing. I am extremely grateful for his support.
x PREFACE
Many of the ideas in this book are the result of work I developed over
a number of years. Some of the ideas expressed here appeared in articles
in journals and books previously.1
This book has had the benefit of a literal army of research support by
graduate students, who helped over many years track down sources, syn-
thesize core arguments, and type up notes and quotes. Many thanks to
Germán Campos Muñoz, Laura Ariza, Marcela Velez, Natalie Hanson,
Leisha Santiago, and Alexis Rodriguez. I am forever grateful for their
patience with me and their attention to detail. This book also had the
benefit of the camaraderie and careful editing of Leisa Rothlisberger,
who worked with me on Mexico’s NAFTA culture for her dissertation.
We traveled to Tijuana together and she is the one who initially helped
us connect with René Castillo. Leisa was one of those dream students
whose work inspires and teaches you. She has been an invaluable source
of support in preparing this manuscript for press.
When you take forever to write a book, you have a lot of people to
thank, but you also have to contend with the messiness of memory. So I
ask forgiveness in advance of anyone I miss.
I thank Peter Hitchcock for his productive, critical prodding. Once
when we were talking about this project, he suggested that cinema was
a dead cultural form. I hope that this book helps to persuade him I was
right to stick with it. He also gets credit for putting me in touch with
Esther Peeren, one of the editors of this series, whose work is an inspira-
tion. Lee Medovoi offered early support as I grappled with the overall
thesis of the book. His suggestion to think in terms of biopolitics was
extremely valuable. Chris Breu was a constant source of support over the
years and was generous with his time at a rough moment in his life. Marc
Bousquet helped me think through some of the questions I had about
labor and was a great sounding board. Jeffrey Di Leo has been a tremen-
dous source of insight and support. He models what it truly means to be
a colleague and he is a great friend.
I had the good fortune to meet Toby Miller while working on this
project. I had long been a fan of his work, but it was especially helpful
to have the chance to connect face to face and talk through some of the
ideas in this book. I had similar experiences with both Michael Denning
and William Robinson who each visited Penn State as I was working out
my ideas. Special thanks to Tanner Mirrlees who offered valuable cyber
support.