While there are numerous film studies that focus on one particular grouping of films-by nationality, by era, or by technique-here is the first single volume that incorporates all of the above, offering a broad overview of experimental Latin American film produced over the last twenty years.

Analyzing seventeen recent films by eleven different filmmakers from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru, Cynthia Tompkins uses a comparative approach that finds commonalities among the disparate works in terms of their influences, aesthetics, and techniques. Tompkins introduces each film first in its sociohistorical context before summarizing it and then subverting its canonical interpretation. Pivotal to her close readings of the films and their convergences as a collective cinema is Tompkins's application of Deleuzian film theory and the concept of the time-image as it pertains to the treatment of time and repetition. Tompkins also explores such topics as the theme of decolonization, the consistent use of montage, paratactically structured narratives, and the fusion of documentary conventions and neorealism with drama. An invaluable contribution to any dialogue on the avant-garde in general and to filmmaking both in and out of Latin America, Experimental Latin American Cinema is also a welcome and insightful addition to Latin American studies as a whole.

"Tompkins's book brings a serious engagement with Deleuzian cinematic theory to Latin American film studies. It has the potential of standing with the work of Stam, King, and Burton. Because Tompkins focuses on the avant-garde, her book is more specific in its scope than the work of these important scholars, and it deals with many filmmakers they do not discuss. The book's often finely textured discussion of individual films is one of its outstanding contributions." -- Amy Kaminsky, Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies and Professor of Global Studies, University of Minnesota; author of Argentina: Stories for a Nation

About the Author

Cynthia Tompkins, Professor of Spanish and Latin American Cultural Production at Arizona State University, was born and raised in Argentina. She is the author of Latin American Postmodernisms: Women Writers and Experimentation, as well as a significant number of refereed articles, and has translated and coedited numerous other publications.

Reviews
Clearly organized and thoroughly researched, the book boasts a useful scholarly apparatus. * Choice *



Book Information
ISBN 9780292762091
Author Cynthia Tompkins
Format Paperback
Page Count 306
Imprint University of Texas Press
Publisher University of Texas Press
Weight(grams) 367g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 23mm