Paper short abstract:

The encounters between man and nature are at the core of many contemporary Latin American films. Hence, this paper aims to explore how such encounters are portrayed and how that representation is influenced by local and/or global factors.

Paper long abstract:

The focus on the encounters between man and nature has been recurring in the field of cultural production from its beginnings. In cinema, these encounters have arisen frequently and have been considered from different perspectives, in various forms and with divergent political, ideological and philosophical purposes. Many contemporary Latin American productions portray this relationship of man with nature in a minimalist way, mainly due to economic necessity, but also to aesthetic choices that seem to follow Bazinian premises. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore how that encounter is consecrated in formal terms, particularly through the cases of La hamaca paraguaya (Encina 2006), Alamar (González Rubio 2009) and La Libertad (Alonso 2001). Considering the local problematic inherent to the spaces represented and the influences of international capital in the production process, national-transnational theoretical approaches will also be discussed. As many critics and scholars have noted, it has become de rigueur to analyze films from transnational approaches following theories of globalization. Nonetheless, the collaboration of different nations in the production phase has been a common practice in filmmaking since its early stages and yet national criticism has prevailed. Therefore, what remains of local identity in the aforementioned films, in spite of this new internationalism, will be also contemplated when reviewing the interrelations of man and nature.