Skip to main content

The Contemporary Documentary Road Movie in Latin America: Issues on Mobility, Displacement, and Autobiography

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Latin American Road Movie

Part of the book series: Global Cinema ((GLOBALCINE))

  • 672 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter studies the representation of displacement and mobility in contemporary documentaries influenced by the road movie genre in terms of iconography, narrative patterns, and visual cues. Piedras analyzes three first person documentaries made by female directors: The Illusion (Susana Barriga, Cuba, 2008), Diario de uma busca (Flávia Castro, Brazil, 2010), and Hija (María Paz González, Chile, 2011). These non-fiction films have employed conventions of the road movie to put in flux issues of identity—personal and collective—and memory with a distinctive focus on gender. Piedras argues that Latin American women’s directors have found in contemporary first person documentaries a cogent genre to articulate a strong female agency and face issues such as their relationship with conflictive paternal figures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 100.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Works Cited

  • Altman, Rick. 1999. Los géneros cinematográficos. Barcelona: Paidós. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amado, Ana M. 2009. La imagen justa: Cine argentino y política, (1980–2007). Buenos Aires: Ediciones Colihue. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baltar, Mariana. 2009. Weeping reality. Melodramatic imagination in contemporary Brazilian documentary. In Latin American melodrama. Passion, pathos and entertainment, ed. Darlene J. Sadlier, 130–138. Illinois: University of Illinois Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergala, Alain. 2000. Si ‘yo’ me fuera contado. In Cineastas frente al espejo, ed. Gregorio Martín Gutiérrez, 27–33. Madrid: T&B. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernardet, Jean-Claude. 2011. Documentales de búsqueda: 33 y Pasaporte húngaro. In El cine de lo real, ed. Amir Labaki and María Dora Mourão, 117–128. Buenos Aires: Colihue.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruzzi, Stella. 2006. El documental performativo. In Postverité, ed. Berta Sichel, 223–264. Murcia: Centro Párraga. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chanan, Michael. 2008. The politics of documentary. London: British Film Institute. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuarterolo, Andrea. 2011. El viaje en la era de la reproductibilidad técnica. Discursos etno-geográficos en los primeros travelogues argentinos. Revista Cine Documental 3: n. pag. Web. 25 Feb 2015. http://revista.cinedocumental.com.ar/3/articulos_05.html.

  • Guasch, Anna María. 2009. Autobiografías visuales. Madrid: Siruela. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, Marianne. 1997. Family frames: Photography, narrative, and postmemory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laderman, David. 2002. Driving visions. Exploring the road movie. Austin: University of Texas Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lane, Jim. 2002. The autobiographical documentary in America. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lie, Nadia, and Pablo Piedras. 2014. Identidad y movilidad en el cine documental latinoamericano contemporáneo: Familia tipo (Cecilia Priego, 2009) e Hija (María Paz González, 2011). Confluencia. Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura 30(1): 72–86. Print.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lutkehaus, Nancy, and Jenny Cool. 1999. Paradigms lost and found: The ‘crisis of representation’ and visual anthropology. In Collecting visible evidence, ed. Jane Gaines and Michael Renov, 116–139. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martín Gutiérrez, Gregorio (ed.). 2008. Cineastas frente al espejo. Madrid: T&B—Festival Internacional de Cine de las Palmas. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichols, Bill. 2006. El documental performativo. In Postverité, ed. Berta Sichel, 197–221. Murcia: Centro Párraga. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichols, Bill, Josetxo Cerdán, and Eduardo Iriarte. 1997. La representación de la realidad: cuestiones y conceptos sobre el documental. Barcelona: Paidós. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orgeron, Devin. 2008. Road movies. From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami. New York/Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paranaguá, Paulo Antonio. 2003. Tradición y modernidad en el cine de América Latina. Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piedras, Pablo. 2016, forthcoming. The ‘mobility turn’ in contemporary Latin American first person documentary. In Latin American documentary filmmaking in the new millennium, ed. Maria Guadalupe Arenillas and Michael J. Lazzara. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plantinga, Carl. 1997. Rhetoric and representation in nonfiction film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plantinga, Carl. 2009. Documentary. In The Routledge companion to philosophy and film, ed. Paisley Livingstone and Carl Plantinga, 494–503. New York: Routledge. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quilez Esteve, Laia. 2008. Sutiles pretéritos. In Cineastas frente al espejo, ed. Gregorio Martín Gutiérrez, 83–100. Madrid: T&B—Festival Internacional de Cine de las Palmas. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renov, Michael. 2004. The subject of documentary. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renov, Michael. 2008. First-person films. Some theses on self-inscription. In Rethinking documentaries. New perspectives, new practices, ed. Thomas Austin and Wilma de Jong, 39–50. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sagaseta, Julia Elena. 2006. La vida sube a escena. Sobre formas biográficas y teatro. Telón de fondo 2(3): n. pag. Web.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheller, Mimi, and John Urry. 2006. The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning 38. 207–226. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sussex, Elizabeth. 1975. The rise and fall of British documentary: The story of the film movement founded by John Grierson. California: The University of California Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trastoy, Beatriz. 2008. La dramaturgia autobiográfica en el teatro argentino contemporáneo. Archivo Virtual Artes Escénicas. Artea, 28 Oct 2008. Web. 25 Feb 2015. http://artesescenicas.uclm.es/archivos_subidos/textos/144/La_dramaturgia%20autobiografica_en_el_teatro_argentino_contemporaneo.pdf.

  • Yarbro-Bejarano, Ivonne. 2001. Ironic framings: A queer reading of the family (melo)drama in Lourdes Portillo’s The devil never sleeps/El diablo nunca duerme. In Lourdes Portillo. The devil never sleeps and other films, ed. Rosa Linda Fregoso, 102–118. Texas: University of Texas Press. Print.

    Google Scholar 

Filmography

  • 33. 2002. Dir. Kiko Goifman. Brazil: Jurandir Muller, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buenos Aires: crónicas villeras. 1986. Dirs. Carmen Guarini y Marcelo Céspedes.Argentina: Cine Ojo & JBA Production, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cazadores de utopías. 1995. Dir. David Blaustein. Argentina: Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA), DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diario de uma busca. 2010. Dir. Flávia Castro. Brazil: Les Films du Poisson; Tambellini Filmes, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • El diablo nunca duerme. 1994. Dir. Lourdes Portillo. US-Mexico: Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Xochiti Films, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • El edificio de los chilenos. 2010. Dir. Macarena Aguiló. Chile: Aplaplac et al., DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • El hombre cuando es hombre. 1982. Dir. Valeria Sarmiento. Chile: Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA), Women Make Movies & Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF), DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • El telón de azúcar. 2007. Dir. Camila Guzmán Urzúa. Francia-Chile: Paraíso Producciones, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Familia tipo. 2009. Dir. Cecilia Priego. Argentina: Blas Eloy Martínez, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hija. 2011. Dir. María Paz González. Chile: Flor Rubina, Francisco Hervé & M. P. González, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Las abandonadas. 1944. Dir. Emilio Fernández. Mexico: Films Mundiales SA, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Los Rubios. 2003. Dir. Albertina Carri. Argentina: Barry Elsworth, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pachamama. 2008. Dir. Erik Rocha. Brazil: Aruac Produções & Urca Filmes, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papá Iván. 2000. Dir. María Inés Roqué. Arg.-Mex.: Centro Cap. Cinematográfica (CCC) and Zafra Difusión S.A., DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peones. 1994. Dir. Eduardo Coutinho. Brazil: VideoFilmes, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Puerta cerrada. 1939. Dir. Luis Saslavsky. Argentina: Sono Film, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinalda del Carmen, mi mamá y yo. 2006. Dir. Lorena Giachino. Chile: Errante Producciones, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Return to Bolivia. 2008. Dir. Mariano Raffo. Argentina: CEPA Audiovisual, Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA) & Pelela Cine, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santa Marta-Duas Semanas no Morro. 1987. Dir. Eduardo Coutinho. Brasil: ISER Video, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Secretos de lucha. 2007. Dir. Maiana Bidegain. Francia-Uruguay: SMAC et al., DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman’s March. 1986. Dir. Ross McElwee. USA: First Run Features, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stella Dallas. 1937. Dir. King Vidor. USA: Samuel Goldwyn Company, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • The illusion. 2008. Dir. Susana Barriga. Cuba: Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión (EICTV), DVD.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Piedras, P. (2016). The Contemporary Documentary Road Movie in Latin America: Issues on Mobility, Displacement, and Autobiography. In: Garibotto, V., Pérez, J. (eds) The Latin American Road Movie. Global Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58093-1_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics