Latin American Cinematography and Discourses Offered by Chicano to the Audience - Essay Example

Chicano Studies (Chicano film) Introduction: An individual’s human entity in a particular social domain is not accepted, depending over his spontaneous and natural human virtues but his entity is transformed into social identity through various sorts of socio-cultural impacts, prevailing political norms and incidents, capable enough to determine the course of an individual’s process of living life. Compared to the early years of the 20th century, the post World War II society witnessed a drastic change in every aspect of human life. Noticeably, these changes were mostly conspicuous in the Western social domain. However, on a larger plain, consequences of these changes also casted serious impact over lifestyles of people residing in the developing nations. Effects of such changes were gradually becoming prominent and during the 60s these aspects made their strongest appearance in the socio-cultural arena of the developing nations. Film is considered as one of the most powerful mediums that produced the most realistic documents of such changes. During the early years of modern film making tradition, Chicano or Latino films did not attracted enough attention of mainstream Hollywood industry and exhibition of such films was to some extent restricted. The Latin American urban regions, namely, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo were mainly dominated by films from mainstream Hollywood tradition (Hart 2). Consequently, there was a lack of investment factor, which led the Latin American nations to encounter a great deal of difficulty in developing their respective national film industries (Hart 2). At the same time, there are quite a few instances, where Chicanos were represented in a narrative manner to the audience and the early 21st century “Greaser” films are excellent evidences in support of such observation (Fregoso xvii). However, continuous quest by the commercial film makers during the years of 1940s and 50s was gradually changing the perception of Latin American films to the Hollywood film industry. The new age potential directors also realized quite clearly that in order to create critically acclaimed cinema it is important to come up with new cinematic styles as well as striking storylines. In the context of adopting experimental cinematic style in the Latin American film making scenario, the Neo-Realism of Italy and the New Wave genre of French contributed to a great extent (Hart 7). Changes of this kind were mainly occurring during the 1960s and this decade is widely acclaimed by film scholars across the globe as the most important period for the Latin American films as during this time, the Latin American film making tradition developed its uniqueness and identity (Hart 7). In addition to this factor, the Cuban revolution also introduced a great deal of change at the socio-cultural and political perception of the common Latin American people. A new wave of socialism was introduced by the revolution and it surely created huge impact over development of the Latin American cinema. The social unrest, Chicano student movement and political radicalism immediately became interesting subjects for the filmmakers and they started incorporating these aspects in their creations. One of the pioneer Chicano films “I Am Joaquin” (1969) is a great instance that incorporated elements of this socio-political activism in an effective manner (Noriega and López 5). At the same time, establishment of Field Castro as the center of power provided the film industry exactly with the kind of support that it lacked for a long time. Another important contribution of the Cuban revolution was that through the new wave socialism it introduced a kind of social consciousness among the contemporary filmmakers that they realized life of Latin American inhabitants convey “something intrinsically different about the way life was lived in the southern continent of the Americas” (Hart 9) and such consciousness resulted in immortal film creations, namely, “Memories of Underdeveloped” by Gutierrez Alca and “Lucia” by Humberto Solas. Such new age Latin American films explicitly reflected the message, which was aimed against conventional appreciation of the mainstream Hollywood film industry. These new films, at the same time, were also providing a great deal of importance to underdeveloped lifestyle of the inhabitants in the Latin American nations. Focusing over lives of ordinary people and incidents that changed the course of their respective lives, the filmmakers aimed at presenting an impression of the entire existential macrocosmic status in the Latin American socio-cultural and political domain. The crisis that general people of this region encounter on a regular basis has actually been caused due to the colonial oppression and this realization was clearly reflected by the post 60s Latin American filmmakers clearly. Fernando Birri, in his essay, “Cinema and Underdeveloped” and Glauber Rocha in “The Aesthetics of Hunger” produced excellent arguments in support of such observation. Exposition of such works to a larger audience and huge appreciation of the new era Latin American films, since the 70s onwards, was attracting attention of the Hollywood film makers. A careful observation of the contemporary socio-cultural, economic and political condition of the contemporary Latin American startled the Hollywood film industry with the fact that Latin American films comprise excellent degree of both artistic and commercial potentials. This realization received a further stronger foundation as “Camila” (1984) by Lusia Bemberg and “La hisoria oficial or The Official Story” (1984) by Luis Puenzo were nominated for Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. “The Official Story” also won the award and immediately opened up a new avenue for the Latin American films to claim appreciation of the global audience. The era of 1980s witnessed emergence of the Latin American films as mainstream cinema and at the same time, created huge impact over directors of different cultures from the perspective of storytelling or presenting small incidents with the effect of huge importance in the lives of common people. La historia oficial or The Official Story: “La historia oficial” or “The Official Story” (1984) by Luis Puenzo bears huge importance when it comes to undisputed reception of the Latin American film as mainstream cinema. This film masterfully shows that how daily life of certain individuals can be used to provide a detailed impression of an entire society and how the civilians encounter their respective problems, while living in an entirely Latin American social scenario. On one hand, the film presents existentialist as well as identity crisis that hover around Alicia, her husband Roberto and their daughter Gaby. On the other hand, through their interaction with the other people, it also reveals the kind of socio-political pressure that people had to deal with in the contemporary socio-political condition of Argentina. Alicia’s interaction with Ana, her friend, is very important in this context. During this discussion the audience comes to know that Ana faced tremendous oppression during her stay in the country and finally she had to leave Argentina (Hart 117). The way Ana shares her experience with Alicia- it definitely created a huge impact over Alicia’s perception about political scenario of her country. At the same time, Alicia personally is stormed inside regarding true identity of Gaby and her quest to search for Gaby’s actual identity places her amidst the situation of unpleasant marital conflict with Roberto. Gaby’s disappearance, finally, shatters the bond between them and sudden frustration led Roberto to the extent of losing his temper. Amidst his fit of anger he inflicts serious physical abuse over Alicia, damaging her hand and thrusting her head against wall. The last scene of the film shows Alicia leaves Roberto after embracing him (Hart 117) and at the same time provides the audience with a clear impression of separation, desolation and end of mutual trust. This film, within its limited scope, has focused over several issues that created huge impact over the inhabitants of Argentina during the contemporary society. Consequently, it also has provided a clear indication of the fact that no matter how much the political ideologies boost the aspects of human liberty, fraternity and vision to a better social existence but in case of applying these aspects in actual social context, these fundamental principles are twisted to such an extent that those become far removed from their actual status. This film has not only provided a comprehensive idea about the plight of social existence of the common people in a particular socio-cultural arena but at the same time it also has reflected over the psychological crisis that those people encounter, generated due to their respective identity and existential crisis. To understand the cultural-aesthetic dimensions of different societies it is important at the first place to go through the psychological basis of inhabitants of the society. However, it is always not possible for an individual to be present physically in such a socio-cultural backdrop and evaluate the cultural-aesthetic dimension of the people but in this context movies produced from those societies are sources of abundant materials that help an individual to indentify the reactions of people belonging to a particular society, regarding their situation of living as and exploring basic features of their identity as well. What we call today as globalization, has received a great deal of boost from the due to the Latin American films as these films have elevated the aspect of social existence of the Hispanics and the situations that on a regular basis they have to encounter. Prior to the evolution of the Latin American films, these aspects were widely unknown to most of the people across the world. These films have clearly pointed out that Latin American people are also suffering due to the political oppressions just like other people in different socio-political domains and their respective suffering is so similar with residents of other societies that it automatically receives a tone of universality. One of the main reasons behind undisputed acceptance of the Latin American films as mainstream cinema is that these films successfully helped people of the Western society that despite several apparent differences all human beings are emotionally and humanly very much similar. “The Official Story” supported this argument in a very crafted, subtle yet explicit manner. The psychological and emotional crisis that protagonists of the film have suffered can be abundantly witnessed in the Western social scenario. Moreover, the Western people are also not inexperienced about ill effects of the political oppression and the kind of havoc that it can create in the context of social existence of an individual. Here lies the main success factor of “The Official Story” that it has successfully represented the essence of modern existence despite its entire focus over a specific socio-political domain. Globalization, underdevelopment and Latin American films: Among several changes within the social arena of 20th century at the global context, common people have become familiar with the term “Globalization”. The philosophical outlook, which is incorporated with the terminology, clearly states that the whole world will be like a village and following the policies will ensure harmonious lifestyle of people in every society. There will be lack of suffering and people will receive an opportunity to lead a better life. Unfortunately, pondering over the actual situation, it seems that such promises were mainly aimed at developing lives of the common people of the Western society; whereas inhabitants of other societies are destined to live only being recognized as underdeveloped or oppressed, “Uneven processes of development characterized Latin American countries throughout the 20th century, and continued to do so in an increasingly globalized new millennium” (Shaw and Dennison 2). The new age Latin American filmmakers, through their creative works, have repeatedly emphasized over the aspect that tragic plight of the underdeveloped social existence for the inhabitants of the Latin American nations have actually been caused due to the prolonged colonial ruling and internal political conflict. Involvement of the United States with the political situation of Latin American nations has worsened the situation; rather than providing relief to the common people and true documents in support of such observation has recurred in films like, “Latino” (1985) and “Salvador” (1986). The film “Latino” depicts disillusionment of Eddie, who has been sent by the U.S. Government to teach the Nicaraguan militants about art of modern warfare. Eddie’s close observation of the hypocritical role adopted by the U.S. Government led him to violet directions even after receiving the opportunity to escape by he keeps the “dog tag that will identify him as an American and reveal U.S. involvement in the conflict” (Christensen and Haas 195). Despite the explicit political connotations present in this film, “Latino” has never been considered by critics as a successful political film (Prince 324). In this context, “Salvador” (1986) has received a far better appreciation from critics due to its effective way of treating and analyzing the nature of politics in the Latin American social domain. Through this film, the filmmaker has focused over the aspect that would “communicate the chaos and horror of revolution and stirring things up” (Christensen and Haas 195). In both these films, the filmmakers have provided special attention to individual characters and through their actions they have attempted to portray an elaborate socio-political condition of the Latin American nations. In “The Official Story” (1984) Ana’s narrative opens the brutality of common people’s suffering during the war, where more than 30000 people were assassinated and more than 100 journalists were killed as they did not stop themselves from reveling true nature of the military leaders, who were exploiting the common people in name of political ideologies. Accordingly, “Latino” and “Salvador” also focused over these aspects and clearly convey that in name of revolution and with the promise to ensure a better existence to the common people ultimately politics is grinding the very foundation of human existence. People take part in a revolution or support the causes of revolution because they think that would provide them a better life and existence. In reality, the political leaders actually capitalize such emotional aspiration of the common people and even at the cost of their lives these political and military leaders ultimately aim for the betterment of their personal lives. Conclusion: The Latin American films not only represented the actual condition of the common people in the society during the 20th century but at the same time produce an effective document of the exploitation of the mass in name of political ideologies. Consequently, these films also represent true evidence of American imperialist discourse and further, the actual nature of international politics (Berg 4-5). Protagonists of these films have often been portrayed in such a way, with their personality, character conflict and effect of prevailing political turmoil over their nature that it would not have received appreciation of mainstream Hollywood industry (Chanan 335). Yet, the Latin American filmmakers have never actually asked for recognition of the Hollywood. Since appreciation of “The Official Story”, there has been no doubt regarding relevance of the Latin American films in the mainstream cinema discourse. At the same time, these films have focused over such aspects of life that essentially bear a theme of universal appeal and have provided a taste of eternal aesthetics to the audience, irrespective of their social and cultural differences. Works Cited Berg, Charles Ramírez,. Latino images in film: stereotypes, subversion, & resistance. Texas: University of Texas Press. 2002 Chanan, Michael. Cuban cinema. Edition: 2. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. 2004 Fregoso, Rosa Linda. The bronze screen: Chicana and Chicano film culture. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1993 Haas, Peter J. and Christensen, Terry. Projecting politics: political messages in American film. New York: M.E. Sharpe. 2005 Hart, Stephen M. A companion to Latin American film. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. 2004 López, Ana M. and Noriega, Chon A. The Ethnic eye: Latino media arts. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. 1996 Prince, Stephen. A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood Under the Electronic Rainbow, 1980-1989. California: University of California Press, 2002 Shaw, Lisa and Dennison, Stephanie. Latin American cinema: essays on modernity, gender and national identity. North Carolina: McFarland, 2005 Read More