Latin American Filmmakers and European Film Funds

As filmmakers in the Global South are increasingly faced with the choice of succumbing to foreign visions of their own culture or losing access to indispensable funds and future prospects, this study explores this quandary through studying filmmaker’s own perspectives. 

The book focuses on filmmakers’ individual approaches to European film funds, arguing not only that these creator-sponsor relationships are highly complex, but also that filmmakers are fully able to develop various strategies of resistance by reframing these relationships. The author explores the mechanics of European film funding and how filmmakers position themselves within the system, and demonstrates how these strategies are also present in film texts themselves – movies funded by European institutions often scrutinise the notion of intercultural relationships and power struggles, negotiating widespread perspectives on intercultural exchange. Excerpts from interviews with filmmakers, producers, adjudicators of funds and representatives of various cultural institutions are woven into scholarly arguments, theoretical reflections, and film analyses, to creative a narrative about Latin American filmmakers who manage to overcome obstacles and create novel, exciting ways of sharing their intercultural experiences.

This informative and nuanced study will interest students and scholars of media studies, film studies, South- and Central-American cinema, media industries, economics, politics, communication studies and languages.