Cineando: Patricio Guzmán's La cordillera de los sueños and the Power of First Person Nonfiction Filmmaking in Latin America

The release of Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman's La Cordillera de los Sueños (Cordillera of Dreams) prompts FQ columnist Manuel Betancourt to reflect upon the reflexive turn in recent nonfiction documentaries from Latin America. Betancourt suggests that Guzmán pioneered the wave of documentary filmmakers in the region whose work marries first-person address with political urgency. Broadening his focus to include Petra Costa and Tatiana Huezo, whose films The Edge of Democracy and Tempestad explore the political collateral damage in Brazil and the violence against women in Mexico respectively, Betancourt argues that these filmmakers' embrace of self-reflexive strategies places them at the forefront of a vital nonfiction tradition that puts personal narratives front and center.