10 Latin American Documentaries

Here we have compiled 10 Latin American documentaries that we feel that people should watch or certainly know more about.

Crude

Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures.

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A Promise to the Dead

I watched this when it premiered at the ICA cinema in London, this trully is a magnificent documentary about Chile and Pinochet. It was the firt time I witnessed an entire cinema cry.

A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman is an exploration of exile, memory, longing and democracy through the words and memories of playwright/author/activist Ariel Dorfman. Born in Argentina, growing up in New York and Chile, Dorfman became cultural advisor to socialist president Salvador Allende in Chile. When the Allende government was toppled in the U.S.A backed military coup of September 11, 1973, Dorfman was among a handful of Allende’s inner circle to survive. A Promise to the Dead was filmed in the USA, Argentina and Chile in late 2006, coinciding with the death of former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet.

Buy a Promise to the Dead from White Pine Pictures

Laguna Negra

Laguna Negra is a film that explores the core values of a subsistence farming community in Huancabamba (Peru), the way the fabric of this society has been threatened by large scale mining and the destructive outcome of imposing a capital intensive model of development on a society based on traditional values.

The War on Democracy

Award winning journalist John Pilger examines the role of Washington in America’s manipulation of Latin American politics during the last 50 years leading up to the struggle by ordinary people to free themselves from poverty and racism.

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Cuba Mia

An orchestra formed entirely of women spend their days rehearsing, touring and sharing efforts to enable them to offer a concert in the Basilica of Old Havana.

Son’s of Cuba

The Havana Boxing Academy is a Cuban boarding school that takes 9-year-old boys, and turns them into the best boxers in the world. SONS OF CUBA follows the stories of three young hopefuls through 8 dramatic months of training and schooling as they prepare for the biggest event of their lives so far: Cuba’s National Boxing Championship for Under-12′s. But during the season, crisis strikes: Fidel Castro is taken ill, and all of Cuba’s Olympic boxing champions defect to the USA, leaving Cuba at a crossroads, and the boys contemplating a changing world.

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La Batalla de Chile (The Battle of Chile)

The Battle of Chile is a documentary film in 3 parts, directed by the Chilean Patricio Guzman: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie (1975), The Coup d’état (1976), Popular Power (1979). It is a chronicle of the political tension in Chile in 1973 and of the violent counter revolution against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. It won the Grand Prix in 1975 and 1976 at the Grenoble International Film Festival.

Banana’s

Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers he is tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it? In the suspenseful documentary BANANAS!*, filmmaker Fredrik Gertten sheds new light on the global politics of food.

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South of the Border

A road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media’s misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents.

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Inside the Revolution

February 2009 marked 10 years since Hugo Chavez took office, following a landslide election victory, and launched his revolution to bring radical change to Venezuela. While wildly popular with many in the country, Chavez’s policies and his outspoken criticisms of the U.S. government have made him powerful enemies, both at home and abroad, especially in the media.

Buy Inside the Revolution from Alborada

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