Blogs

22 January 2021. All over the world leaders have celebrated the beginning of vaccination in their countries, some of them taking the first jab themselves. But when the first vaccines were administered in São Paulo on Sunday, Jair Bolsonaro sulked in silence in his palace, because not only had his arch political rival, São Paulo […]

The short film El Silencio del Rio, ‘The Silence of the River’, by Peruvian director Francesca Canepa, won the Grand Jury Award at the Oscar-qualifying Calgary International Film Festival and is currently longlisted in the Best Short Film category for the 2021 Academy Awards. Mathilde Aupetit considers the film’s blurring of dream and reality in order to present an Amazonian perspective, and its representation of the narrative power of nature.

While in the English-speaking world the annual pre-lenten extravaganza is usually called ‘Carnival’, with an ‘i’, in Brazil is it ‘Carnaval’. Covid must be bad in Brazil, even carnivals are being postponed. My favourite, Recife, will not take place in February. A new date of 9–17 July has been set, but even this may be […]

Published by: Practical Action Publishing (2020). In his latest book, Ben McKay writes about a commodity that is rapidly expanding in Latin America: soy. Taking a political economy approach, he explores the historical development of the industrial soy complex in the region, carefully analysing society-capital-state relations and looking at some of the contradictions of Evo […]

This is the second post in the new London Mining Network blog, a partnership initiative between LAB and LMN. Cerrejón’s ‘agreement’ with Wayúu community comes as news to them; Chubut communities mobilise again; updates from Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.

Lia Gomez-Lang takes a close look at Fernanda Valadez’s poignant feature film Sin Señas Particulares (Identifying Features), a tender portrayal of disappearances of migrants on the Mexico-United States border, and LAB recommends other important films presenting narratives of migration.

Award-winning Chilean documentary filmmaker Maite Alberdi unveils her new documentary 'The Mole Agent', which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has been met with veneration from critics. Unusual, stylish and poignant, the film will be released in the UK on 11 December.

Bolsonaro and his brand of extreme right wing politics have emerged as the big losers in Brazil’s recent local elections, but established left wing parties have not done so well either. Jan Rocha reports.

In recent years, this highest award in the filmmaking business has been kind to Latin American filmmakers, especially Mexican directors: Since 2014 five directing awards were won by Alfonso Cuarón (for Gravity in 2014 and Roma in 2019), Alejandro González Iñárritu (for Birdman in 2015 and The Revenant in 2016), and Guillermo del Toro (for The Shape of Water in 2018). The Oscars 2021 submissions from Latin America are:

Ventana Sur has indisputably become a key event in the film industry calendar and, since its creation in 2009, has played a significant role in bringing Latin American cinema to the rest of the world. This year’s edition is set to unveil a wealth of burgeoning talents and new and exciting audiovisual content.