Chile: narrating dictatorship violence
La mirada incendiada (The Burning Gaze, 2021) attempts to work through recent trauma, yet risks sensationalising a catastrophic event remembered by many Chileans, not least the families of the aggrieved.
This Stolen Country of Mine: Neo-Colonialism in Ecuador
This Stolen Country of Mine is a gripping documentary following resistance leader Paúl Jarrín and investigative journalist Fernando Villavicencio, as they fight to stop...
The shrinking land of the people of lightning
The collaborative work of 10 indigenous filmmakers, this short film offers an insight into the lives of the Avá group of Guarani-Kaiowá people in Brazil, whose land is shrinking and whose lives are increasingly threatened by outside influences.
Patricio Guzmán documents Chile’s new era
My Imaginary Country, which premiered to standing ovations at Cannes this year, is perhaps the documentary Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán has always wanted to make.
New books from LAB authors
LAB authors have published three new books - on indigenous communities vs extractive industries in Ecuador; and on the military dictatorship, torture and human rights in Brazil
La Pampa: The horrors of illegal gold mining
This impactful drama from Peruvian director Dorian Fernández Moris recounts life for women in the hellish La Pampa, an illegal gold mining site in the Peruvian Amazon.
A sunflower in her hair
A day after Marielle’s murder, Brazilian poets spontaneously posted poems about her murder and legacy on various social media accounts. These poems were then published in 2018 in a collection published by Quintal Edições titled: Um girassol nos teus cabelos – poemas para Marielle Franco.
Brazil: reaction vs progress
Professor David Treece reviews Jan Rocha's chronicle of her years reporting for the BBC on Brazil during the military dictatorship
The fight for land rights in Brazil’s northeast
Itamar Vieira Júnior's multi award-winning novel gives a voice to silenced Black, Indigenous and Quilombola communities who have fought for their land rights for hundreds of years.
Retracing Galeano’s Open Veins
'Gold, Oil and Avocados, A Recent History of Latin America in Sixteen Commodities' by Andy Robinson is a detailed account of export extractivism in Latin America, offering rich context.