From Hollywood to Bogota and Buenos Aires: New Histories of Latin American Cinema

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel brings together scholars from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States in dialogue with one another about the importance of transnational and emotional histories for understanding Latin American cinema in the first half of the 20th century. The papers address topics such as Hollywood's arrival and strategies for commercial success in Colombia in the 1910s and 1920s, how the development of Uruguayan cinema and film culture in the 1930s and 1940s was deeply influenced by Hollywood and Argentine cinema, and the role of national film magazines in fomenting emotional relationships with Latin American movie stars during the 1920s in the Southern Cone. The papers each engage with overlapping methods of cultural history to compare local contexts and trace global forms of exchange that shaped the worlds of Latin American cinema in the early 20th century. Collectively, the panel represents new approaches to writing the histories of Latin American cinema while considering different historical actors that transformed Bogota, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo into urban centers where cinema-going became a major cultural practice of everyday life.

Sub Track

• Film, Performance, and Culture

Session Organizer

• Daniel Richter, University of Maryland

Chair

• Daniel Richter, University of Maryland

Discussant

• Maricruz Castro-Ricalde, Tecnológico de Monterrey

Individual Presentations

• La llegada de un nuevo entretenimiento: circulación y apropiación del cine silente de Hollywood en Colombia (1910-1930) - Leidy P Bolaños Florido

• Furtive looks in the dark: feelings of love and adoration in Latin American audiences, 1920s. - Camila Gatica Mizala, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

• Montevideanos at the Movies: Rethinking Film Culture in Uruguay in the 1930s and 1940s - Daniel Richter, University of Maryland