Overview

By connecting formulations from various disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, Indigeneity in Latin American Cinema critically examines the ways in which indigenous societies are portrayed in Latin American cinema. It reviews how 67 fiction feature films produced between 2000 and 2018, reflect, reinforce, mask or challenge outdated archetypes, and how audiences react to these visual narratives. The underlying notion is that, in spite of important reconfigurations, static conventions of representation still determine the portrayal of indigenous communities in cinema. As the author demonstrates, motion pictures created by local directors seeking to attract the attention of global audiences result in exotifying narratives. The book examines the various strategies deployed to achieve, awe-inspiring cinematic productions that resonate with local and global viewers' preconceptions of what the indigenous entails. The book looks at the contexts in which Latin American films circulate in international festivals and the paradigm shift introduced by Roma (Mexico, 2018). Conclusively, the book provides the foundations of histrionic indigeneity, a theory that explains how overtly histrionic proclivities play a significant role in portrayals of an imagined indigenous Other in recent films.