Small Cinemas of the Andes

“An outstanding volume with a rich and layered examination of popular cinemas in the Andean regions of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia.” Cristina Venegas, Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies, University of California Santa Barbara. “The diverse contributions address issues of sovereignty, representation, and autonomy in audiovisual cartographies belonging to Andean feminisms, indigenous communities, LBGTQI+ and local community production.” Juana Suárez, Associate Arts Professor, Cinema Studies, New York University “This significant and timely volume offers its readers a wonderfully rich set of essays that give voice and visibility to some of the diverse filmmaking and storytelling from a region that is often excluded from the cinematic discourse of the four nations it spans.” Sarah Barrow, Professor of Film and Media, University of East Anglia This book examines the emergence of small cinemas of the Andes, covering digitalperipheries in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. The volume critically assesses heterogeneous audiovisual practices and subaltern agents, elucidating existing tensions, contradictions and resistances with respect to established cinematic norms. The reason these small cinematic sectors are of interest is twofold: first, the film markets of the aforementioned countries are often eclipsed by the filmmaking giants of Mexico, Brazil and Argentina; second, within the Andean countries these small cinemas are overshadowed by film board-backed cinemas whose products are largely designed for international film festivals. Diana Coryat is a media educator and practitioner affiliated with Mendocino College in California and Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Ecuador. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Christian Leon is a professor at Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Ecuador and a visiting professor at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) (Ecuador). He holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences at Universidad de Buenos Aires. Noah Zweig is a research professor affiliated with Arizona State University Online and Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. He holds a Ph.D. in Film and Media Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.