Recession, Resurgence, and Road Movies
South American Cinema since the 90s
Tom Gore talks to Natália Pinazza (and her writing partner/editor Louis Bayman) about Argentine and Brazilian Cinema in a global era
writer TOM GORE
S
outh American Cinema has been particularly strong for many years now – a fact underlined once again this awards season by the critical success of Damián Szifron’s darkly comic Argentine portmanteau film, Wild Tales, which received much praise and an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Language category. Yet, a quarter of a century ago it seemed the film industries of South America’s two most powerful nations, Argentina and Brazil, were in serious peril. Both countries had emerged from years of dictatorship in the 80s, only to be plunged into economic crises amid flirtations with neo-liberal economic policies. Government intervention produced specific legislation: the Audiovisual Law (1993) in Brazil and the New Cinema Law (1994) In Argentina, which gradually turned the tide and resulted in a bona fide cinematic
Vérité Apr-Jun 2o15 edition
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