Screening Coming of Age: Youth, Politics, and Culture in Contemporary Hispanic Film

MANZANO, VALERIA

Athens, West Virginia

Encuentro; Second Film Festival and Conference on Latin American and Hispanic Film; 2011

Concord University

In this presentation, I examine how youth is represented in the Latin American film traditions of the 1960s and, in comparison, of the 1990s and 2000s. It is my understanding that films constitute cultural products that work with materials of the everyday culture and politics to create meanings. That “work” is the basis of representation, and my interrogation is why, at different times, filmmakers in Latin America have opted to “work” with youth. As in the 1960s, the 1990s and 2000s were decades marked by the reintroduction of Latin American youth into the cinematographic center stage, yet the differences in the narratives, narrative styles, and metaphorical works are noticeable.