ANTONIO GÓMEZ,FRANCISCO J. HERNÁNDEZ ADRIÁN
How do the islands and archipelagos of the New World figure in Latin
American cinema? Comprising 15 essays and a critical introduction, The
Film Archipelago: Islands in Latin American Cinema addresses this
question by examining a series of intersections between insular spaces
and filmmaking in Latin America. The volume brings together
international scholars and filmmakers to consider a diverse corpus of
films about islands, films that take place on islands, films produced in
islands, and films that problematise islands.
The book explores a diverse range of films that extend from the Chilean
documentaries of Patricio Guzmán to work on the Malvinas/Falkland
Islands, and films by Argentine directors Gustavo Fontán and Lucrecia
Martel. Chapters focus on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the Mexican Islas
Marías, and the Panamanian Caribbean; on ecocritical, environmental and
film historical aspects of Brazilian and Argentine river islands; and on
Cuban, Guadeloupean, Haitian, and Puerto Rican contexts.
The Film Archipelago argues that the islands and archipelagos of Latin
American cinema constitute a critically interesting, analytically complex,
and historically suggestive angle to explore issues of marginality and
peripherality, remoteness and isolation, and fragility and dependency. As
a whole, the collection demonstrates to what extent the combined insular
and archipelagic lens can re-frame and re-figure both longstanding and
recent discussions on the spaces of Latin American cinema.
This well-curated and insightfully organized volume invites us to
reconceptualize Latin America and the Caribbean from an innovative,
rigorous, and unexplored perspective: cinematic islandscapes. Essential
reading for anyone seeking breadth and depth in Latin American and
Caribbean film. Veronica Garibotto, The University of Kansas, USA
From Cuba to Rapa Nui/Easter Island, from 1930s Hollywood Mr. Moto
murder-mysteries to contemporary Patricio Guzmán documentaries, The
Film Archipelago draws on the uniqueness of islands (their distinctive
memories, their liminality, relationality, imaginary) to provide a timely
perspective on our tumultuous world from the Global South. This standout
book is a truly engaging, wonderfully varied, and deeply insightful
contribution to Film Studies (as it turns increasingly away from the nation
towards the wider world), which will also resonate strongly across Latin
American and Island Studies. A captivating read! David Martin-Jones,
University of Glasgow, UK
Focusing on island spaces and territories from Martín García to the
Antilles, the essays collected here brilliantly investigate their cinematic
representation, meanings and how their study further questions the
critical paradigm of national cinemas. A major contribution to Latin
American film studies and studies of space in film. Deborah Martin,
University College London, UK
