8 sessions, 1:30 AM – 4:30 PM
September 27 through November 15, 2017
Wheelock Terrace - Hanover, NH
Course Fee: $80

Most film buffs would be able to identify these giants of European film-making: Ingmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut, Werner Herzog, and Vittorio De Sica. Now, how about Alfonso Cuaran, Luis Puenzo, Thomas Alea, or Alejandro Inarritu, who are important film auteurs from Latin America whose pictures have had, for the most part, limited exposure in the United States? Motion pictures are the most approachable of all visual arts, yet it is puzzling why the movies being created in Latin America, our nearest regional neighbor, have been ignored by so many American film distributors.

One reason has been the global position of Hollywood, which has dominated film distribution in all parts of the world, including Latin America. (In Brazil, with a major film industry, the highest-grossing movie of all times is Jaws.) For decades it has been so difficult to compete with American pictures. The films industries of the area have always been strapped for money, which have led in recent years to movies produced in joint partnership with European film companies. Many of the best movies from Latin America would be considered “art house” pictures as compared to the mass audience appeal of Hollywood cinema.

Hopefully this course will introduce some of the most creative artists working in the Latin American film industries. Among the movies to be screened will be Love’s a Bitch (Mexico), The Official Story (Argentina), City of God (Brazil), and Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba), along with four other pictures of equal stature.

This should be a new adventure for all of us who are interested in cinema of different countries.