ABSTRACT
Until the 1980s it was nearly impossible to find an English-language book-length study or more than one or two monographs dedicated to the Latin American cinema. Unlike other national cinemas, which were introduced into English-language scholarship via translations of “master” histories written by nationals (for example, the German cinema, which was studied through the histories of Kracauer and Eisner), the various Latin American cinemas first became known ahistorically, through “contemporary” events reported in brief, non-analytical, articles providing, above all, political evaluations. There is undoubtedly a need and a place for interviews and manifestos within Latin American film scholarship, but not at the expense of historical research or of work which critically engages with and contextualizes the interviewees and their films, manifestos, and theoretical positions. In comparison to the texts that attempt to deal with all of Latin America’s filmmaking history, problems, and achievements, works that focus on a specific national cinema face a relatively simpler task.
