Libertadores; bicentenarios de las independencias en el cine

Abstract

The bicentennials of the Latin American Independencies bred a wide range of audiovisual productions created by and for television and cinema, reflecting on the processes of independence as well as on the realities of the colonies. This vast production includes the Libertadores collection, which was designed to be eight historical fiction films that would narrate epic stories of Independence leaders from various Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. On its first stage, the collection was co-produced by the Spanish production company Wanda Films, together with Lusa Films, and TVE (the Spanish public radio and television company), alongside local film and television production companies from Latin America, both private and state-owned. The project faced difficulties along the way and weathered a hiatus in the middle of the production process. It was then partly resumed, premiering a film as late as 2017, and canceling the last film. The Libertadores collection can be characterized as ‘Crossover Cinema’: national and international, from different media and with different production processes and visual reflections,while responding to the widespread idiosyncrasies of these countries. By analyzing seven films, this chapter assesses which elements of the Latin American republics’ foundational pasts were chosen to be highlighted during the bicentennial celebrations, and how these decisions speak of the present of the production periods. To do so, the chapter takes into account a detailed array of production modes and phases in Latin America; the representation of the dynamics between the Spanish Empire and the revolutionary and victorious Latin Americanists; the manifestations of self-determination that emerge from the films, and finally, individual aspects of the liberators’characters and lives. In this way, this study seeks to identify how these proindependence historiophoties become a proposal of values to understand the identity of these countries, at the point of their bicentennials,within a globalized world.