Authors
Amalia Córdova
Publication date
2017/1/2
Journal
NACLA Report on the Americas
Volume
49
Issue
1
Pages
114-115
Publisher
Routledge
Description
A string of feature-length, narrative films from Latin America, spoken in Indigenous languages and starring non-professional Native actors, has caught world cinema by surprise in recent years. Is this a passing trend, aimed at securing directorial breakthroughs for independent directors at international film festivals with a taste for the “unseen” or the exotic? Or might we be seeing a reprise of the call for a more sociallycommitted cinema that emerged from Latin America decades ago—a trend that was known as the “New” Latin America Cinema? In director Jayro Bustamante’s feature debut Ixcanul (2015), a Kaqchiquelspeaking family negotiates their survival as farmers on a landowner’s plot in Guatemala. Looming in the distance is the Pacaya volcano from which the film takes its name.(Ixcanul means “volcano” in Kaqchiquel.) At stake is the future of María, beautifully portrayed by first-time Mayan actress María …
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