Social Movements

Luis Bustamante's images of Chile's estallido social - which began on October 18, 2019, now a whole year ago - speak for themselves. Most were taken of protesters in Santiago around Plaza Baquedano, renamed by protestors as Plaza de la Diginidad. Others cover graffiti and stencil work that popped up during this period, taken in a range of Chilean cities.

Camila Freitas’ documentary Landless (Chão, 2019) follows the struggle of the MST – the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil ­– as they strive for reform and access to land.

Today, LAB is proud to launch a crowdfunding campaign for a brand new and very important LAB project: The Heart of Our Earth: Community Resistance to Mining in Latin America. But why mining? And why now?

EmpoderArte, a Peruvian-based NGO which offers a decentralised film education to women, Karoline organises and runs workshops up and down Peru, mobilising hundreds of women to discover and embrace the emancipatory power of storytelling.

Feminist groups in Argentina and abroad greeted the New Year in celebration as the country’s National Congress voted in favour of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Bill, which will allow childbearing people in the country to access abortion for free in public hospitals up to 14 weeks pregnancy.

Argentina’s strict lockdown measures have seen an outpouring of solidarity for queer tango in Buenos Aires. Edgardo Fernández Sesma, LGBTQI+ activist and queer tango teacher holds tango classes using none of the heteronormative gender dynamics traditionally assumed by ‘male’ and ‘female’ dancers.

“I wanted to capture what was happening in Chile and to pay homage to the strength and commitment of the Chilean people. They are taking on neo-liberalism and a militarised state with stones and trumpets. This is a lesson for the rest of the world, we can learn so much from them."

Carole Concha Bell interviews Nick MacWilliam about his new Alborada Films documentary 'Santiago Rising', digging deeper into the estallido social in Chile and how to effectively capture the sentiments and events of this social movement.

A new online seminar series from the Latin America is Moving Collective will explore Latin American social movements before and after the pandemic.

Confronted with the denial of science, racism and land-greed of the modern 'colonisers', indigenous communities decided to resist and are receiving international recognition for their work.