Fall 2025 New Latin American Cinema

Film 42.03, Colt 52.02, Lacs 30.06, Ints 17.12
Fall 2025 3A
Prof. Gerd Gemunden

During the course, we will have Brazilian director Joana Pimenta (Dry Ground Burning) as a guest, the students will have a zoom conversation with director Anna Muylaert, and the HOP will have a free special screening of her latest film The Best Mother in the World. There is also an amazing tie-in with Telluride at Dartmouth. Kleber Mendonça Filho's new film The Secret Agent will screen on September 20, followed by a recorded zoom interview with the director and me.

With emergence of filmmakers such as Alejandro Inarrirtu (Mexico), Lucrecia Martel (Argentina), and Jose Padilha (Brazil), the last decade has seen a creative boom in Latin American cinema that includes art house cinema, blockbusters, documentary, and experimental film. Beginning with a quick overview of key forerunners, this course will focus on the major directors, genres and aesthetic trends that characterize the new Latin American cinema. On the one hand, we will pay special attention to the distinct national cinemas:the different historical and cultural contexts out of which they emerge; and the different aesthitics that this gives rise to.