Trans-national Cinema

Latin American Cinema has moved outside of the local to become transnational.

It is common for theorists, when analysing Latin American Cinema, to place emphasis on the obvious move towards a transnational mode of filmmaking within a cinema that was originally concerned with the local. As New Latin American Cinema is rooted in the theme of unity, this theory has become increasingly important. Therefore it is appropriate to consider how and/or why the cinema has become transnational. For example, examining the economic and cultural context in which the suggested transnational preoccupations have developed and extracting various examples from New Latin American films.

To begin with, how did a cinema that, since the advent of sound, embraced their individual national culture (for instance, referenced particular traditions of music and dance), come to favour a transculturation, as termed by Fernando Ortiz, approach to film? For Ortiz and indeed Angel Rama, who later adapted the theory, transculturation was not about directly shunning national culture, for example the specifically Argentinian Tango or the Brazilian Samba, or rejecting outside influences but rather accepting the cultural diversities as they exist within Latin America as one unity. It can not be coincidence that Ortiz developed his study, Contrapunteo Cubano del Tabaco y Azucar, at a time when migration of talent was prevalent. The 1940s and 1950s had seen a sharp rise of European and American film practitioners coming to work in Latin America. As discussed by Susan Hayward, Latin American film-makers also went to Europe, Cubans and Mexicans collaborated to contribute to Argentinian cinema and so on, leaving a heritage which influenced ‘the present trend of transnationalism.’1 Thus, for Hayward, migration and the role it has played in increasing collaborations between diverse national talents, is a major factor in the move away from local themes.

However, perhaps a more defining factor was the need for Latin American film to reach an international audience. In simple terms, this need was due to a lack of funding for independent national productions and devalued currency, along with the rise of consumer television. Collaborations, therefore, were as much about sharing financial burden as they were to do with migration. As Renaro Rosaldo observes, cinema does not escape the interdependence of borrowing and lending ‘across porous national and cultural boundaries’2 that is a dominate influence throughout the world in a time of globalisation.
‘Many of the recent feature films considered to be Latin American films, by reason of the nationality of the film-makers, are co-productions with European companies or institutions and first address an international audience.’3
Furthermore, Hayward agrees that with the rise of television, cinema once again became an ‘elitist cultural artefact,’4 with the result of film being aimed at an international audience. With the venues for New Latin American Cinema consisting mainly of festivals held outside of Latin American regions, for example Chicago or New York, it is not difficult to understand how or why the cinema has moved towards the transnational.

It is important to note how this move is reflected in the New Latin American film texts. For example, there is a clear shift away from geographical concerns in general but also some films deal directly with transcultural or migrancy themes at a narrative level. Lucrecia Martel’s La Nina Santa, for example, denies the viewer a clear perspective of geographical location, in contrast to the original Latin American preoccupation with landscape, instead the frame is always tightly shot; focussing on characters and never indicating exactly ‘where’ outside is. Although this is essentially a New Argentine film, the themes, for example relationships or obsession, are universal. The absence of specific location suggests that space and time are irrelevant and that the film is not concerned with nationality. In the case of Argentina, it becomes increasingly apparent that the move towards the transnational was inevitable, if not necessary. To clarify, having taken into account Argentina’s highly developed and strong sense of culture, for example, as Beatriz Sarlo claims, the popular melodrama, farces and Music Hall to name only a few-it seems unlikely that Argentine practitioners would negate their specifically national culture without due cause. Perhaps it was the need for Latin America to be unified in the struggle against underdevelopment?

For now, returning to how the move away from the local is articulated within film texts, it can be seen in Fresas y Chocolate, that, in addition to being a co-production between Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, there is also an expression of national tensions in the narrative. This is shown when the protagonist David asks ‘Where is he from?’ in reference to the author of some form of high art and Diego replies ‘Obsessed with nationalities…he is Cuban.’ The conversation is arguably directed at those critics/theorists who still insist on defining Latin American films based on individual nationality. Ann Marie Stock, for example, discusses what she terms as an ‘Authenticity Paradox,’ she proposes that ‘a critical insistence on authenticity prevails,’5 despite globalization and the migrancy of talent. Examples of comments based on Guillermo Del Toro’s Cronos are used to demonstrate the paradox. Despite the obvious international influences on the film’s production and aesthetics, Cronos is considered the ‘very Mexicanness of connecting decay and salvation,’ by Anthony De Palma and described as ‘a very stylish and sophisticated Mexican variation,’ by Janet Maslin. The comments are particularly interesting when u consider the use of linguistics in the film, for example, Toro has the protagonists develop a dual-language to communicate. As Stock discusses, the blending of English and Spanish makes the film more accessible for audiences across the continent and almost eliminates the need for subtitles. Furthermore, Stock suggests that the Spanish/English conversations within the film is in parallel to and acknowledges the diversity of cultures in Mexico and throughout America as a whole.
‘In reproducing polyphonic dialogues rather than constructing singular linguistic traditions, the film acknowledges the porosity of borders, the migrancy of populations, and the hybridity of expressive culture.’6
Stock is suggesting then that the move towards the transnational within New Latin American Cinema, particularly at an aesthetic level is due to an awareness possessed by filmmakers in relation to cultural and political changes throughout Latin America.

Once again returning to Fresas y Chocolate, the film, as well as providing direct narrative discussion of location, also contains various references to outside and cross-cultural influences in the form of foreign books and whisky. Moreover, David brings Diego a picture of the revolutionary image of Che Guevara, an image that arguably embodies the ideal of a unified America; Guevara having believed that national borders were an illusion. This view is fully explored in Diarios de Motocicleta, a pan-American film, in which Ernesto, ‘Che,’ makes a speech regarding the issue. The film’s incorporation of foreign elements highlights Fresas y Chocolate’s acknowledgement of Latin American cultural diversity. If the foreign references are not adequate, the film further reveals that it is transnational by offering direct intertextuality between itself and the mainstream film Some Like It Hot. At the same time the audience is not left in any doubt that the story is set in Cuba, as well as providing shots of the City, there are other references to the story location, for example, in an early scene Diego produces a plastic shopping bag, while sitting with David in a café/restaurant, which has Cuba clearly printed on it. Moreover, the films portrayal of the character’s devotion to Orishas, as a form of alternative religion, is specifically Cuban. For example, Nancy’s worshiping of Santa Barbara and Diego’s bargaining with an image of the Virgin Mary. The practice of Santeria and the worship of Orishas were able to flourish in Cuban homes due to the outlaw of public exercising of conventional religion. The specifically Cuban elements suggest that Alea is acknowledging Cuban culture as it exists within the unity of Latin America.
Zuzana M. Pick also discusses New Latin American Cinema as it may exist in terms of a ‘unified entity’ and considers that the movement has essentially mirrored the way in which Latin America has unified in the struggle of underdevelopment.
‘as a movement, it accommodates diverse practices into a whole in the same way as the term Latin America organizes the heterogeneous formations that stretch from Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego.’7
In this sense, the cinema becomes a mediator between state and nation. As explained by Julianne Burton Carvajal, dependent countries tend to be caught in the struggle to ‘conquer an elusive authenticity,’8 and in the case of Latin American nations, she suggests that artists, therefore, act as representatives mediating between the national citizens and the state. Carvajal goes on to state that the preoccupation with pan-nationalism, that the New Latin American Cinema reflected, gave a voice to the struggling masses through the safe-guard of the mediator. Pick also suggests that the exile of filmmakers under dictatorship has contributed substantially to the move away from specifically national themes. For example, she claims that exile alters creativity. For instance, if a filmmaker is exiled he is therefore forced to engage with new cultures and audiences, meaning he must change the way he articulates his work in order to become accessible to the new audience. Pick also recognised that even if the exiled was able to return, the nation would not be found exactly as he had left it. She terms this notion as a ‘decentering of views on identity,’9 and argues that the result of exile, permanent or otherwise, is a transference of narrative ideas across borders.

These factors, that is, exile, migrancy and the common struggle of underdevelopment, along with certain economic reasons, have all contributed to the New Latin American Cinema’s move towards the transnational. As discussed before, some of these factors also influence the film aesthetics. For example, Cronos’s migrancy theme, in the form of border-crossing Tom Mix, in addition to the dual-language it presents. What is undeniable is the notion of diversity as it exists within unity throughout New Latin American Cinema. However, this has caused problems for certain critics. For instance, Michael Wood suggests that Bunuel’s use of popular language in Los Olvidados is detrimental to the universal theme, in that, the message may be international but the faces and the voices are Mexican. If you examine New Latin American Film in this way then of course you will come across similar contradictions. Nonetheless, with the inclusion of certain cultural elements, the cinema has found a way of addressing an international audience without completely negating their national history.
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1Hayward, Susan, ‘Cinema Studies, The Key Concepts,’ Second Edition (Routledge: London) 2000, P. 429

2 Rosaldo, Renaro, ‘Authentically Mexican? Mi Querido Tom Mix and Cronos Reframe Critical Questions,’ in ‘Mexico’s Cinema, A Century of Film and Filmmakers’ (Scholarly Resources: Delaware) 1999, P.272

3 Newman, Kathleen, ‘National Cinema After Globalization, Fernando Solana’s Sur and the Exiled Nation,’ in ‘Mediating Two Worlds, Cinematic Encounters in the Americas’ (BFI: London) 1993, P. 244

4 Hayward, Susan, ‘Cinema Studies, The Key Concepts,’ Second Edition (Routledge: London) 2000, P.431

5 Stock, Ann Marie, ‘Mexican? Mi Querido Tom Mix and Cronos Reframe Critical Questions,’ in ‘Mexico’s Cinema, A Century of Film and Filmmakers’ (Scholarly Resources: Delaware) 1999, P.268

6 Stock, Ann Marie, ‘Mexican? Mi Querido Tom Mix and Cronos Reframe Critical Questions,’ in ‘Mexico’s Cinema, A Century of Film and Filmmakers’ (Scholarly Resources: Delaware) 1999, P. 279

7Pick, Zuzana M, ‘The New Latin American Cinema, A Continental Project’ (University of Texas Press: Austin) 1993, P. 2

8 Carvajal, Julianne B ‘South American Cinema, Nation and anti-nation: the new Latin American cinema movement, artist-intellectuals, and the notion of the popular’ in ‘The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (Oxford University Press: New York) 1998, P. 580

9 Pick, Zuzana M ‘South American Cinema, Nation and anti-nation: the new Latin American cinema movement, artist-intellectuals, and the notion of the popular’ in ‘The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (Oxford University Press: New York) 1998, P. 583




Bibliography

Hill, John, Gibson Church, Pamela ‘The Oxford Guide to Film Studies’ (Oxford University Press: New York) 1998

Hershfield, Joanne, Maciel, David R ‘Mexico’s Cinema, A Century of Film and Filmmakers’ (Scholarly Resources: Delaware) 1999

Hayward, Susan ‘Cinema Studies, The Key Concepts’ (Routledge: London) 2000

Pick, Zuzana M ‘The New Latin American Cinema, A Continental Project’ (University of Texas Press: Austin) 1993

King, John, Lopez, Ana M, Alvarado, Manuel ‘Mediating Two Worlds, Cinematic Encounters in the Americas’ (BFI: London) 19993

Filmography

Cidade de Deus, Brazil, 2002, d: Mereilles, Fernando, Lund, Katia

La Nina Santa, Argentina, 2004, d: Martel, Lucrecia

Fresas y Chocolate, Cuba, 1994, d: Alea, Tomas Gutierrez, Tabio, Juan Carlos