Science Fiction Film (Latin American Studies)

Introduction

Latin American science fiction (SF) cinema does exist, although it is seldom noted by most film critics, scholars, and historians—and perhaps even by major audiences. Unlike other countries across the globe, Latin American countries generally lack more visible and consistent SF film production. This circumstance can be ascribed to limited film budgets and the lack of a consistent film industry in Latin America—which in turn leads to a type of production and aesthetics that relies on the audiences’ imagination more than special effects per se. The alleged “invisibility” of Latin American SF film can be partially (if not totally) explained by the historical instability affecting the Latin American film industry. Thus, cultural biases align with economic circumstances in the preclusion of Latin American SF cinema. Exceptions, however, may be found in the scenarios of Argentina and Mexico, countries where speculative fiction (including both the fantastic and SF) appear to have developed differently, in comparison with other Latin American nations, such as Brazil. In any case, a systematic and consistent body of film criticism and academic work dedicated to Latin American SF film has yet to be constructed. Unlike the literature on the United States, Europe, and Japan, the available bibliography on Latin American manifestations of this film genre is generally sporadic and scattered. Yet, this situation appears to be gradually changing. Internet and digital technologies have scaffolded a (still) fragile web for film scholars interested in SF cinema. And, interest in Latin American SF—literary and audiovisual—seems to be growing, on the part of international scholars. This article will provide a basic bibliography for further investigation into the field of Latin American SF cinema, with a special focus on three countries: Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

General Overviews

Despite the marginal approach of most international encyclopedias and companions to SF audiovisual media, fragmentary information on isolated SF films and TV series produced in Latin America can be found in a number of works. For instance, Hardy 2005 is a reliable source that does not overlook Latin American SF film. This work, however, only lists a handful of Latin American films, in contrast to the massive number of US and European productions. This is understandable, given the scenario put forth by the international film industry. Equivalents to what are perceived to be the paradigms for SF cinema—films such as Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet (1956), Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982)—are much scarcer, or perhaps completely nonexistent, in Latin American film production. However, this so-called serious-dramatic SF cinema has occasionally emerged in some Latin American countries, such as Argentina. Hence, films such as Alberto Pieralisi’s O quinto poder (The fifth power) (1962), an early SF film from Brazil; Eliseo Subiela’s Hombre mirando al sudeste (Man facing southeast) (1986), from Argentina; Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos (1993) and Rodrigo Ordoñez’s Depositários (2010), from Mexico; Alejandro Brugués’s Juan de los muertos (Juan of the dead) (2011), from Cuba; and the Mexican American production Sleep Dealer (2008), directed by Alex Rivera, are undoubtedly eloquent representatives of Latin American SF cinema. Furthermore, SF film parodies have multiplied across South America since the 1930s, when Latin American filmmakers began venturing into the genre. Whereas notes on the roots of the melting pot that is Latin American SF can be found in Haywood Ferreira 2007, one of the most reliable and insightful overviews of Latin American SF cinema is presented in Paz 2008. This work properly serves as an introductory overview, addressing the verifiable aesthetics, production issues and political subtexts in Latin American SF films, particularly from Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil. A selection of essays addressing sequential art, as well as literary and audiovisual works, Ginway and Brown 2012 contains a variety of approaches to Latin American SF. Finally, general information on Latin American SF film and literature can easily be found in Nicholls, et al. 2011, an online SF encyclopedia.

Ginway, M. Elizabeth. “A Working Model for Analyzing Third World Science Fiction: The Case of Brazil.” Science Fiction Studies 32.3 (2005): 467–494.
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Ginway’s essay provides a working model for analyzing Third World, or non-Western, SF. The author investigates selected Brazilian SF narratives published over a specific time period. These narratives are then grouped into generations, or eras, and examined against the backdrop of Brazilian cultural myths.
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Ginway, M. Elizabeth. “Teaching Latin American Science Fiction in English: A Case Study.” In Teaching Science Fiction. Edited by Andy Sawyer and Peter Wright, 179–201. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230300392Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Ginway’s essay has an introductory section on SF cinema, and it also gives an introduction to SF in Spanish America and Brazil that may be useful to researchers who speak only English.
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Ginway, M. Elizabeth, and J. Andrew Brown, eds. Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137312778Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This anthology of theoretical essays compiles a variety of approaches to Latin American SF. The volume assumes a rather broad scope, exploring Latin American SF in different media from Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the Southern Cone, thus, offering a multifaceted theoretical perspective on Latin American SF.
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Hardy, Phil, ed. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. New York: Overlook, 2005.
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Hardy’s encyclopedia of SF film is one of the most reliable and comprehensive, covering the worldwide production of this genre, from its beginnings in the silent era to present times. The film synopses are straightforward, accurate, and elucidative. However, most Latin American SF cinema, Argentine, and Brazilian films in particular, are completely overlooked by the book.
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Haywood Ferreira, Rachel. “The First Wave: Latin American Science Fiction Discovers Its Roots.” Science Fiction Studies 34.3 (2007): 432–462.
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The author departs from “retrolabeling the early works of Latin American SF” (p. 432) in order to present a rigorous investigation and thorough archeology of Latin American SF narratives vis-à-vis the Western history of the genre. As a result, the roots of Latin American SF are exposed and discussed.
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Nicholls, Peter, John Clute, and Barry Langford, eds. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. 3d ed. 2011.
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A comprehensive online database including information on Latin American SF. This digital repository features a variety of entries on Chilean SF, Uruguayan SF, Colombian SF, Cuban SF, and so on.
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Paz, Mariano. “South of the Future: An Overview of Latin American Science Fiction Cinema.” Science Fiction Film and Television 1.1 (2008): 81–103.
DOI: 10.3828/sfftv.1.1.7Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
With a focus on Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, Paz’s consistent overview introduces the main trends in Latin American SF cinema. The author studies how Latin American SF cinema rearticulates the narrative and iconographic conventions of American SF and thereby links these elements with local and regional cultural icons and traditions.
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Genre Overlaps

Given that Latin American SF film frequently appears to be an allegorical, chimeric, and carnivalesque artifact (in the sense of a “playful-carnivalesque” filmic text, as in Xavier 1993), it is worth considering the multiple overlaps and interconnections between SF and horror (that horror is often tied less to special effects and more to the imagination may account for these overlaps), as well as between SF and satire/parables/comedies, in Latin American film production. Albeit against a backdrop of Anglo-Saxon production, consistent information on some Latin American SF/horror film is provided in Clarens 1997. Furthermore, updated studies on the horror film in Latin America and the Caribbean, also addressing SF (particularly in the context of the zombie film and the mad scientist motif), can be found in Díaz-Zambrana and Tomé 2012. Historical accounts and reflections on Latin American popular narratives involving monsters and aliens can also be useful for further research on Latin American SF; overlaps between popular tales and SF tropes are rather frequent in South America. In this sense, both Davis 1997 and Laviera 2006 offer useful accounts of Latin American monsters, especially the chupacabras.

Clarens, Carlos. An Illustrated History of Horror and Science Fiction Films: The Classic Era, 1895–1967. New York: Da Capo, 1997.
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Clarens accurately presents a critical overview of horror and SF cinema dating from 1895 to 1967. Despite the predominance of American and European productions throughout this work, Clarens comments on some Latin American films in the horror/SF genre, “hybrid” films, such as the Mexican work El vampiro (1957), directed by Fernando Méndez.
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Davis, Mike. “Monsters and Messiahs.” In Special Issue: All-American. Grand Street, no. 61 (1997): 34–38.
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A useful reflection on the symbolic and transcultural significance of Latin American monsters, especially the chupacabras, through a comparative, cross-cultural perspective.
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Díaz-Zambrana, Rosana, and Patrícia Tomé, eds. Horrorfílmico: Aproximaciones al cine de terror en Latinoamérica y el Caribe. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial Isla Negra, 2012.
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A collection of essays addressing the aesthetic, political, sociological, and cultural issues concerning a variety of horror films from several different nationalities. The relevance, in terms of further study on Latin American SF, emerges particularly from the context of the zombie film and the mad scientist motif.
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Laviera, Tato. “Puerto Rico’s Chupacabra.” Afro-Hispanic Review 25.2 (2006): 179–182.
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A poetic account of the Latin American monster/alien, Laviera’s text explores the apparition of the chupacabras in Puerto Rico.
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Xavier, Ismail. Alegorias do subdesenvolvimento: Cinema novo, tropicalismo, cinema marginal. São Paulo, Brazil: Brasiliense, 1993.
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A masterpiece of Brazilian film critique, this book marginally addresses the SF genre, particularly in its dense analysis of such films as Rogério Sganzerla’s O bandido da luz vermelha (1968) and Walter Lima Jr.’s Brasil ano 2000 (1969). The author proposes a dichotomy involving two discoursive strategies verifiable in Cinema Novo and Cinema Marginal films: the “serious dramatic” and the “playful-carnivalesque.”
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From Literary Criticism to Film Studies

Some introductory research on the fantastic literature of South America is advisable, as an investigation of Latin American SF literature may provide interesting clues and basic data for further research on Latin American SF film. In this regard, Haywood Ferreira 2011 stands out, with its comprehensive and in-depth account of the origins of Latin American SF narratives, whereas Causo 2003 offers a very useful introductory overview of Latin American SF within an international context. Furthermore, Ginway 2004 concentrates on the Brazilian case to put forth an interesting working model for further analyses of Third World, non-Western SF, whereas a comprehensive and precise timeline for SF in Latin America is outlined in Molina-Gavilán, et al. 2007. For a deeper understanding of Brazilian SF as a whole, both Causo 2003 and Ginway 2004 give useful critical histories of Brazilian SF literature, detailing its primary roots, features, developments, and peculiarities. Causo and Ginway 2010 presents a brief history of Brazilian SF narratives, commenting on late-20th- and early-21st-century academic research in the field. Skorupa 2002 also presents a fruitful discussion on Brazilian SF published between 1947 and 1975, especially in its evoking possible causes or explanations for the curious (under)development of the genre in Brazil. Literary criticism devoted to fantastic, speculative fiction, or to SF literature in particular, also tends to be met with relative ease and consistency when talking about the ventures of Argentine cinema into the SF genre. A pioneering work, in terms of SF criticism in South America, Capanna 1966 (reprinted as Capanna 2007) contains an in-depth critical overview of Argentine SF narratives as well as their roots and main features. Haywood Ferreira 2011 comments on the birth of Argentine SF fandom and its influence in an analysis of Mas allá (the Argentine counterpart to the US magazine Galaxy) and the graphic novel El eternauta, written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and illustrated by Francisco Solano López: “The groundwork for both the audience and the characters of El Eternauta was laid by the magazine Mas Allá [Beyond], published from 1953 to 1957. Capanna has called this period the ‘implantation’ stage of Argentine science fiction” (pp. 283–284). A film adaptation of El eternauta has long been expected.

Capanna, Pablo. El sentido de la ciencia ficción. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Columba, 1966.
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Providing a useful historical approach to Latin American SF, Capanna’s book is a pioneering work in which the author not only theoretically explores the genre, but also examines its roots and development in Latin America, particularly Argentina. Reprinted in 1992, as El mundo de la ciencia ficción (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Ediciones Letra Buena).
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Capanna, Pablo. Ciência ficción: Utopia y mercado. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Cântaro, 2007.
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Originally published in 1966, as El sentido de la ciencia ficción (see Capanna 1966), Capanna’s book represents a pioneering work, in terms of Latin American SF studies, and is perhaps the first South American essay focusing on the genre. Capanna sheds light on a new body of literary work previously regarded as mere byproducts of pop culture.
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Causo, Roberto de Sousa. Ficção científica, fantasia e horror no Brasil: 1875 a 1950. Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Editora Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 2003.
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This work is one of the most comprehensive critical overviews of Brazilian SF, fantasy, and horror, which, according to the author, are the three subgenres constituting the broader field of speculative fiction. Causo closely studies Brazilian novels, novellas, and short stories as well as critical methods proposed by a variety of authors, such as Tzvetan Todorov and Darko Suvin.
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Causo, Roberto de Sousa, and Elizabeth M. Ginway. “Discovering and Re-Discovering Brazilian Science Fiction: An Overview.” Extrapolation 51.1 (2010): 13–39.
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Ginway and Causo present a useful history of Brazilian SF, specifically literary narratives, set in a timeline that divides artistic production into periods, stages, or cycles, against a backdrop of historical events. The article ends with a examination of late-20th- and early-21st-century academic research, with an emphasis on Brazilian SF.
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Ginway, Mary Elizabeth. Brazilian Science Fiction: Cultural Myths and Nationhood in the Land of the Future. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2004.
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This work looks at Brazilian SF against the backdrop of Brazilian culture and history. The chapters cover a range of themes, including common SF iconography in Brazilian literature, dystopian SF, gender issues, creative implications of the dictatorship and the postdictatorship era, hard SF, cyberpunk SF, alien encounters, alternate histories, parallel universes, and more.
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Haywood Ferreira, Rachel. The Emergence of Latin American Science Fiction. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2011.
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The first defense of Darwinism in Latin America and a Latin American Frankenstein are examples of narratives considered by Ferreira. Her research sheds light on interesting aspects of Latin American SF imagery. Includes a chronology of SF works published between 1775 and 1920 in Latin America.
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Molina-Gavilán, Yolanda, Andrea Bell, Miguel Ángel Fernández-Delgado, M. Elizabeth Ginway, Luis Pestarini, and Juan Carlos Toledano Redondo. “A Chronology of Latin-American Science Fiction, 1775–2005.” Science Fiction Studies 34.3 (2007): 369–431.
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The authors join their expertise to outline a rigorous and precise chronology of Latin American SF, commenting on key works that are representative of a variety of South American countries. This work contains useful data for further research on Latin American SF narratives that have ultimately been translated into film.
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Skorupa, Francisco Alberto. Viagem à letras do futuro: Extratos de bordo da ficção científica brasileira, 1947–1975. Curitiba, Brazil: Tetravento, 2002.
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Skorupa presents an in-depth historical analysis of Brazilian SF published between 1947 and 1975. The author also ventures into an ambitious discussion, with regard to the possible roots, causes, and explanations for the state of SF in Brazil—its drawbacks, obstacles, and peculiarities.
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Argentine Film

In retrospect, the trope of the mad scientist conducting eerie medical experiments seems to have been particularly influential in the first stages of Argentine SF film, as seen in Manuel Romero’s Una luz en la ventana (A light through the window) (1942) and Mario Soffici’s El extraño caso del hombre y la bestia (The strange case of the man and the beast), (1951). In addition to the mad scientist motif, the zombie is a recurrent character in Argentine cinema, especially among the independent films. Argentine zombie movies, such as the pioneering Extraña invasión (Stay tuned for terror) (1965), by Emilio Vieyra; the Plaga zombie trilogy, directed by Pablo Parés and Hernán Sáez; and Mauricio G. Fernández and Martin Shirkin’s Contagio (2005) are some examples of the Argentine film production investigated by Saracino 2009. Cozarinsky 1981 sheds light on the relations between Jorge Luis Borges and the cinema, commenting on the history and aesthetics of films such as Hugo Santiago’s Invasión (1969), whose script was written by Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares. Apart from Mexico, which was blessed with a stronger national film industry, Argentina is perhaps the country with the most consistent and regular SF film production in Latin America. Argentine SF cinema is composed of not only American SF emulations, but also a number of literary adaptations, experimental/avant-garde short SF films, and auteur and art SF films as well as independent, low-budget SF cinema. Directors such as Eliseo Subiela (Hombre mirando al sudeste, 1986), Fernando Spiner (La sonámbula, 1998; Adiós querida luna, 2004), Gustavo Mosquera (Moebius, 1996), and Esteban Sapir (La antena, 2007) have accounted for the continuity in Argentine SF cinema since the 1980s. For an accurate account of Argentine SF cinematic history, see Marino 2004. Cuarterolo 2007 analyzes key films, from Invasión to Moebius, in order to consider Argentine SF cinema against the backdrop of the country’s literary traditions, its sociopolitical context, and the dismantling of national science and technology. Whereas Suppia and Reis Filho 2011 also provides a short overview of Argentine SF cinema, Paz 2011 draws on Michel Chion’s concept of acousmêtre, investigating the overlaps between film and politics in its analysis of the acousmatic voices in La sonámbula, La antena, and Adiós querida luna. In terms of web resources, the most complete online repository of Argentine SF literature and film is Axxón.

Axxón.
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A comprehensive online database on Argentine SF art, particularly with regard to literature and film, that is continually updated.
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Cozarinsky, Edgardo. Borges en/y/sobre cine. Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 1981.
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Prefaced by Bioy Casares, this book by the Argentine writer and filmmaker Edgardo Cozarinsky presents a selection of Borges’s writings on cinema as well as his thoughts on Orson Welles, film and theater, dubbing, and his testimony on the creation of Santiago’s Invasión—the enigmatic Argentine cult film written by Borges, Santiago, and Bioy Casares.
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Cuarterolo, Andrea. “Distopías vernáculas: El cine de ciencia ficción en la Argentina.” In Cines al margen: Nuevos modos de representación en el cine argentino contemporáneo. Edited by María José Moore and Paula Wolkowicz, 81–105. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Libraria, 2007.
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Cuarterolo’s critical overview analyzes a group of key films by Santiago, Subiela, Spiner, Mosquera, and Mercedes Frutos, investigating Argentine SF film in relation to the country’s literary tradition and sociopolitical context.
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Haywood Ferreira, Rachel. “Mas Allá, El Eternauta, and the Dawn of the Golden Age of Latin American Science Fiction (1953–59).” Extrapolation 51.2 (2010): 281–303.
DOI: 10.3828/extr.2010.51.2.6Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In this essay, Haywood Ferreira revisits the history of Argentine SF fandom and SF culture, while detailing the history and social role of two publications in particular: Mas allá, published from 1953 to 1957, and Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López’s graphic novel El eternauta, published in Hora cero semanal from 1957 to 1959.
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Marino, Alfredo. “Cine de ciencia-ficción argentino.” In Cine argentino y latinoamericano: Una mirada crítica. By Alfredo Marino, 103–113. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Nobuko, 2004.
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A critical history of Argentine SF cinema within the broader context of Latin American cinema.
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Paz, Mariano. “Vox Politica: Acousmatic Voices in Argentine Science Fiction Film.” New Review of Film and Television Studies 9.1 (2011): 15–27.
DOI: 10.1080/17400309.2011.521715Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Drawing on Chion’s work, this article analyzes the role of acousmatic characters in three contemporary Argentine SF films: La antena, La sonámbula, and Adiós querida luna. The author suggests that the acousmatic voices in these films can also be interpreted as an allusion to the disappeared citizens victimized by state violence in Argentina under military rule (1976–1983).
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Saracino, Luciano. Zombies! Una enciclopedia del cine de muertos vivos. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Fan Ediciones, 2009.
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Saracino’s overview is a good reference source for specific research on the zombie motif. This critical survey begins with the release of the first Argentine zombie film and moves on to the reemergence of this subgenre in early-21st-century Argentine SF cinema.
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Suppia, Alfredo, and Lucio Reis Filho. “Draft for a Critical History of Argentine Science Fiction Cinema.” SFRA Review, no. 297, (2011): 23–29.
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This article provides a concise overview of Argentine SF films, from the 1930s to the early 21st century. The authors propose that, possibly inspired by such authors as Borges, Bioy Casares, and Julio Cortázar, Argentine cinema demonstrates a greater ease in its treatment of the fantastic and speculative fiction.
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Brazilian Film

Brazilian SF film is frequently ignored by film critics and scholars. Nevertheless, surveys such as Cánepa 2008 have demonstrated that the Brazilian film industry has been flirting with fantasy since the mid-1930s and 1940s, a moment at which certain directors started adding supernatural motifs to musical comedies and film parodies. Pioneering SF tropes in Brazilian cinema can be found in films such as Alberto Pieralisi’s O quinto poder as well as some chanchadas—Watson Macedo’s Carnaval em Marte (Carnival on Mars) (1955) and Victor Lima’s Os cosmonautas (The cosmonauts) (1962). From the mid-1960s onward the horror/SF film was able to establish deeper roots in Brazilian cinema, having in José Mojica Marins its most famous expression (Barcinski and Finotti 1998, Tierney 2009). Cánepa 2008 suggests that the exploitation horror film cycle, lasting between 1975 and 1982, and Walter Hugo Khouri’s fantasy films also had key roles in the development and consolidation of the Brazilian fantasy film—a category that encompasses SF. Some contemporary Brazilian cinema has reassessed SF through the revival of the spiritualist film, such as Wagner de Assis’s Nosso lar (Our home) (2010). Contemporary horror/SF cinema in Brazil is marked by a new generation of directors that includes Paulo Biscaia Filho, Luiz Bolognesi, Kléber Mendonça Filho, Carlos Canela, Santiago Dellape, Rodrigo Aragão, Joel Caetano, and Rodrigo Brandão as well as the return of film veterans such as Marins, Ivan Cardoso, Fauzi Mansur, and Jorge Furtado. Overlaps between horror and SF have multiplied in Brazilian zombie movies, such as Aragão’s Mangue negro (Black swamp) (2008). Similarly, Aragão, an independent director from the state of Espírito Santo, also directed two other feature-length horror-SF schlock films, A noite do chupacabras (2011), which draws on the popular worldwide legend of a blood-sucking alien creature, and Mar negro (2013). More specific surveys and critical investigations of Latin American and Brazilian SF cinema can be found in Suppia 2013. A very short overview of Brazilian SF cinema is presented in Suppia 2008, whereas Ginway and Suppia 2012 examines SF motifs in Jorge Furtado’s films. It is also worth mentioning Schoereder 1986, one of the first comprehensive introductory overviews of SF to set Brazilian works in the international SF context; this text offers useful information on Brazilian SF cinema.

Barcinski, André, and Ivan Finotti. Maldito: A vida e o cinema de José Mojica Marins, o Zé do Caixão. São Paulo, Brazil: Editora 34, 1998.
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A biography of one of the most popular and controversial Brazilian filmmakers, this book tells the life story of José Mojica, or Coffin Joe (Zé do Caixão), tracing Mojica’s journey from humble childhood in the Sao Paulo suburb of Vila Anastácio to attainment of international recognition in the 1990s.
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Cánepa, Laura Loguercio. “Medo de quê? Uma história do horror nos filmes brasileiros.” PhD diss., Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2008.
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Employing a historical outlook, this thesis closely studies manifestations of the horror genre in Brazilian movies made between 1937 and 2007. This is one of the few works, if not the only, that provides a truly in-depth academic investigation of the Brazilian horror film.
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Ginway, M. Elizabeth, and Alfredo Suppia. “Science Fiction and Metafiction in the Cinematic Works of Brazilian Director Jorge Furtado.” In Latin American Science Fiction: Theory and Practice. Edited by M. Elizabeth Ginway and J. Andrew Brown, 203–224. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
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Based on their exploration of the SF tropes, possible influences, and narrative strategies in films by the Brazilian director Jorge Furtado, particularly the time travel tale Barbosa, a 1988 short movie, and more recent feature-length films, such as Saneamento básico (Basic sanitation) (2007) and Meu tio matou um cara (My Uncle Killed a Guy) (2004), the authors of this work contend that SF imagery is recurrent in Furtado’s films.
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Schoereder, Gilberto. Ficção científica. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Francisco Alves, 1986.
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One of the first and most comprehensive introductions to SF studies published in Portuguese, this book approaches Brazilian SF literature and film within an international context. Although lacking a specific focus on film, useful introductory information on Brazilian SF cinema can be found in this book.
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Suppia, Alfredo. “Science Fiction in the Brazilian Cinema: A Brief Overview.” Film International 6.2 (2008): 6–13.
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This article presents a brief overview of Brazilian SF cinema, from the early appearances of the genre to film production in the early 21st century. The author also briefly comments on the main trends and features of Brazilian SF cinema as a whole.
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Suppia, Alfredo. Atmosfera rarefeita: A ficção científica no cinema brasileiro. São Paulo, Brazil: Devir, 2013.
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This study gives a substantial overview of SF in Brazilian cinema, with a comprehensive critical history of feature-length Brazilian SF film as well as a broad panorama of short Brazilian SF film. Finally, the book discusses the state of Brazilian SF cinema in general.
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Tierney, Dolores. “José Mojica Martins and the Cultural Politics of Marginality in ‘Third World’ Film Criticism.” In Latsploitation, Exploitation Cinemas, and Latin America. Edited by Victoria Ruétalo and Dolores Tierney, 115–128. New York: Routledge, 2009.
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Tierney’s work further considers the role and impact of Marins’s popular genre films in the context of Brazilian film criticism, addressing “marginality” as an artistic reaction.
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Colombian Film

SF in Colombian cinema deserves further attention despite its irregularity, in terms of not only film production, but also artistic creativity. All in all, Colombian horror-SF cinema is represented by a short list of movies directed by Colombian filmmakers both in- and outside the country, such as Jairo Pinilla, the “Colombian Ed Wood,” with his films Funeral siniestro (1977), T-O: Triángulo de Oro—la isla fantasma (1984), and Posesión extraterrestre (2000), among others. Pinilla’s first digital film (medium length), Posesión extraterrestre, is largely considered to be the first true Colombian SF film. Since the late 20th century, Colombian SF film production has tended to employ dystopian motifs, with a focus on urban life, archaism versus modernity, and individual and social collapse. Directed by Alejandro Basile, Ricardo Guerra, Pablo Mora, and Jaime Sánchez, Bogotá 2016 (2001) is divided into episodes (Zapping, La Venus virtual,¿Quién paga el pato?) that come together to create a future vision of the Colombian capital, whereas Óscar Campos’s Yo soy otro (2008) is a SF-horror thriller that draws on the old myth of the doppelgänger. Directed and written by Andrés Barrientos and Carlos Andrés Reyes, En agosto (2008) is a fine example of SF from Colombia. This superb short animation tells the story of two characters in two different time realities. A postapocalyptic narrative, the visual style of En agosto resembles that of films such as Blade Runner, and its plot interweaves elements of alternate reality, love story, and folklore—a good example of South American cyberpunk, or “science fiction from the south.” Finally, Dogs (2012), directed by the Colombian-French filmmaker Hugo Santander (who lives in India), features a dystopia in which humankind has been enslaved by an intelligent strain of dogs who can kill at sight; this film was inspired by Chris Marker’s La jetée (1962). A short history of Colombian SF narratives can be found in Burgos 2013.

Burgos, Ricardo. “ESF: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction; Colombia.” Revista Universidad de Antioquia 311 (2013): 19–23.
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Traversing the four stages that are proposed in this article, Burgos provides a short history of Colombian SF from the 19th and early 20th centuries (with pioneering works, such as Soledad Acosta de Samper’s Bogotá en el año 2000, 1905) up to the early 21st century. Although the author focuses on literature, this work is useful for a deeper understanding of Colombian SF as a whole.
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Mexican Film

Larson 1977 and Castro López 2001 provide relevant data and critique of Mexican fantasy/SF literature, useful for an initial approach to Mexican SF cinema via the broader framework of speculative narratives. Likely, the first Mexican film that can be associated with both the horror genre and SF is Gabriel Soria’s Los muertos hablan (1935). According to Schmelz 2006, “In Mexican films, science and magic are often indistinguishable—the figure of the scientist becomes blurred in characters who also dabble in medicine and witchcraft” (p. 43). Comedy has also regularly combined with SF since the 1940s, as Mexican films first started to concern themselves with technological fantasy—as seen in Jaime Salvador’s El moderno Barba Azul (The modern Bluebeard) (1946), a space exploration adventure starring Buster Keaton. For Paz 2008 (cited under General Overviews), Mexico has the largest and most systematic body of fantasy films (SF, but also horror), with more than a hundred feature films, most of them concentrated in the period between the early 1950s and the early 1980s. This fact can be ascribed to the development of a film industry that, unlike that of Argentina and Brazil, was dominated by private investors until the early 1970s. The 1950s represented a kind of golden age for Mexican horror/SF cinema. Released in 1953, Chano Urueta’s El monstruo resucitado is considered to be the first major medical SF movie in Mexico. Fernando Méndez’s Ladrón de cadáveres (1957), written by Méndez and Alejandro Verbitzky, was another popular success. From the 1950s onward, films starring wrestlers started being adapted to the silver screen. Vampires, robots, werewolves, mad scientists, mummies, zombies, and aliens began populating lucha libre films from the first stages of this Mexican film phenomenon (Schmelz 2006, Criollo, et al. 2011). A specific study of the zombie motif (with references to Latin American cinema) is conducted in Russell 2005. Schmelz 2006 and Paz 2008 (cited under General Overviews) suggest that Mexican cinema may offer one of the most interesting area for an investigation of borderline fiction, in terms of film genre, hybridism, and parody. Amid the contemporary Mexican filmmakers who often deal with fantasy, Guillermo del Toro stands out as a horror/fantasy auteur with international visibility. Focusing on the idea of borderline narratives, Rivera 2012 contains insightful reflections on Latin American SF, Chicano literature, and stories set in both cultural and geopolitical frontiers, such as Alex Rivera’s feature film Sleep Dealer.

Castro López, Ramón. Expedición a la ciencia ficción mexicana. Mexico City: Lectorum, 2001.
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Castro extends Larson 1977, providing a panorama of authors and works from the 1960s through 2000, with interpretations and contexts for key novels and authors in Mexico.
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Criollo, Raúl, José Xavier Návar, and Rafael Aviña. ¡Quiero ver sangre!: Historia iIlustrada del xine de luchadores. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2011.
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Monsters, supernatural creatures, mad scientists, and eerie experiments are recurrent motifs in the lucha libre films, in which wrestling heroes (Santo, Blue Demon) are challenged by vampires, zombies, evil scientists, werewolves, and aliens. This book presents an introductory survey of this outstanding Mexican film phenomenon.
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Larson, Ross. Fantasy and Imagination in the Mexican Narrative. Tempe: Arizona State University, 1977.
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A classic study that gives a broad overview of Mexican fantasy literature but that also includes chapters titled “Utopian and Science Fiction” and “Magical Realism,” with an emphasis on Mexican works from the late 19th century through the 1960s.
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Rivera, Lysa. “Future Histories and Cyborg Labor: Reading Borderlands Science Fiction after NAFTA.” Science Fiction Studies 39.3 (2012): 415–436.
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Rivera’s essay approaches the thought-provoking theme of borderlands narratives. The essay puts Chicano/Chicana SF produced north of the border in conversation with SF from the “other side,” specifically the Mexican writer Guillermo Lavín’s short story “Llegar a la orilla” (Reaching the shore) (1994), SF films by the American filmmaker Alex Rivera, and Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita’s “Chicanafuturistic” novel Lunar braceros (2009).
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Rosas Rodríguez, Saúl. El cine de horror en México. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Grupo Editorial Lumen/Saga Ediciones, 2003.
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An illustrated history of Mexican horror cinema, this text is a good starting point for further research. It is worth remembering the continuities worldwide between the horror and SF genres and that Mexican films often fuse horror and SF tropes.
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Russell, Jamie. Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema. Godalming, UK: FAB, 2005.
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Assuming a socioeconomic perspective, Russell provides a comprehensive transnational survey of the zombie film, with references from the early-20th-century writings of the American adventurer William Seabrook (who chronicled his experiences and research in 1920s Haiti).
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Schmelz, Itala, ed. El futuro más acá: Cine mexicano de ciencia ficción /Mexican Science Fiction Film. Translated by Richard Moszka. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes–Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 2006.
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A comprehensive survey of Mexican SF cinema, this bilingual (Spanish-English) collection of thorough and accurate essays historicizes Mexican SF film. The volume is the product of a cultural initiative sponsored by the Mexican government, which commissioned researchers and scholars and organized Mexican SF film festivals (“El Futuro Más Acá”) in several countries around the world.
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Peruvian Film

SF cinema directed by Peruvian filmmakers has demonstrated renewed momentum since the late 20th century, regardless of any fragility in national film production. Listed here are some of Peru’s most remarkable works. The Peruvian director Arthur Cross is developing his debut feature film, The 2nd Horseman, which was shot in the deserts of Peru, particularly in Chilca, a region with a history of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Also from Peru, Adrián Saba’s feature film El limpiador (The cleaner) (2012) is set in a dystopian future, in which a mysterious epidemic has taken its toll on Lima, forcing a group of people to become custodians of the dead, cleaning up others’ lives upon their untimely passing. The Lima-born director Ricardo de Montreuil has also garnered attention with his six-minute film The Raven (2010). Produced in the United States, this SF thriller is set in a futuristic Los Angeles. Middents 2009 discusses Peruvian cinema, with a focus on the Peruvian director Luis Llosa’s The Hour of the Assassin (1987), a straight genre film. With financial backing from Roger Corman’s Concorde–New Horizons Pictures, Llosa’s second feature film, Crime Zone (released in Peru as Calles peligrosas, 1989), involves “officials in a dystopian police state [that] must create criminals in order to justify and maintain their existence” (p. 64). Middents describes the film’s look as being a postapocaltypic mix of the film Bonnie and Clyde (1987) and George Orwell’s novel 1984. Llosa also directed two more features, 800 Leagues Down the Amazon (1993) and Fire on the Amazon (1993), an ecological thriller, as well as producing Anaconda, in 1997.

Middents, Jeffrey. “Roger Corman Dis/covers Peru: National Cinema and Luis Llosa’s Hour of the Assassin/Misión en los Andes.” In Latsploitation, Exploitation Cinemas, and Latin America. Edited by Victoria Ruétalo and Dolores Tierney, 55–69. New York: Routledge, 2009.
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Middents analyzes the work of the Peruvian film director Luis Llosa, departing from his Hour of the Assassin. The author also comments on Llosa’s second film, Crime Zone, a dystopian tale.
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Films from Other Countries

That other Latin American countries—Venezuela, Chile, Uruguay, the Caribbean island nations, and so on—are not particularly stressed in this survey does not mean they lack SF cinema. At first glance, the prominence of Mexican and Argentine SF cinema is quite evident in South America, in terms of the number of productions released, box office sales, critical acclaim, and international impact. Other countries tend to cluster with Brazil in a secondary group in which a national SF cinema remains less visible. Yet, although sporadic and scattered, SF films from these other Latin American countries also deserve attention. From Cuba, one could mention Rolando Díaz’s La vida en rosa (1989) and Alejandro Brugués’s zombie movie Juan de los muertos (Juan of the dead) (2011). Chilean SF cinema is also represented by films such as Diego Ayala’s forthcoming feature Conexión (2014), in addition to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s cult movies, such as the surreal spaghetti western parody El topo (1970), with its references to SF imagery: “El Topo represents a journey towards immortality. This time it is a quest made by a group of thieves from all over the galaxy led by a guru (Jodorovsky)” (Cerdán and Labayen 2009, p. 107). Although it does not discuss Chilean SF film, Areco 2008 is an invaluable source, as it analyzes the modes of representing space in three Chilean SF novels. SF elements in Equadorian cinema can be sought in films directed by Fernando Cedeño, such as En busca del tesoro perdido (1995) and Sicarios manabitas (2004) and in Nixon Chalacamá’s El destructor invisible (1996). Alemán 2009 further explores the “borderline,” “subterranean” nature of Equadorian cinema. Outside the feature film circuit, a number of short films have done a tremendous job representing Latin American SF in film festivals across South America and, sometimes, theglobe. This is the case with Asdrúbal Barrios’s Venezuelan short SF film Mónica electrónica (2010), which was produced at the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV), as well as the Argentine shorts Los sobrevivientes (2010), by Simón Delacre, and 578 (2010), by Facundo Escudero Salinas and Gabriel Aufgang. A brief account of contemporary Uruguayan short SF film can be found in Suppia 2010. With regard to web resources, Sophia Flores’s blog Sci-Fi Latino is a useful site for research on contemporary Latin American SF cinema.

Alemán, Gabriela. “At the Margins of the Margins: Contemporary Exploitation Cinema and the Local Pirate Market.” In Latsploitation, Exploitation Cinemas, and Latin America. Edited by Victoria Ruétalo and Dolores Tierney, 261–274. New York: Routledge, 2009.
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Assuming a critical lens, Alemán further investigates Equadorian film production, which has often been regarded as marginal and peripheral. The influence of SF iconography on Equadorian cinema emerges collaterally from Alemán’s analysis.
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Areco, Macarena. “Ciudad, espacio y ciberespacio en la ciencia ficción chilena reciente: Tres versiones del laberinto.” Acta lit 37 (2008): 25–42.
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This article looks at the modes of representing space in three Chilean SF novels: El ruido del tiempo (1987), by Claudio Jaque; Ygdrasil (2005), by Jorge Baradit; and 2010: Chile en llamas (1998), by Darío Oses.
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Cerdán, Josetxo, and Miguel Fernández Labayen. “Arty Exploitation, Cool Cult, and the Cinema of Alejandro Jodorovsky.” In Latsploitation, Exploitation Cinemas, and Latin America. Edited by Victoria Ruétalo and Dolores Tierney, 102–114. New York: Routledge, 2009.
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Cerdán and Labayen center their analysis on the works of tbe Chilean artist and filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, a cult director whose oeuvre has incidentally been associated with a sort of avant-garde SF.
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Flores, Sophia, ed. SciFi Latino.
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This blog by Sophia Flores, a Puerto Rican SF fan and cinephile, presents useful and information on the latest Latin American SF releases, both short and feature length. The blog reviews current television series, canceled shows, movies, books, and anything else Flores considers genre worthy and that has a Latino participating in a significant capacity.
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Suppia, Alfredo. “Southern Portable Panic: Federico Álvarez’s Ataque de Pánico!” SFRA Review 291 (2010): 23–24.
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This media review focuses on Fede Álvarez’s Ataque de pánico (2009), a digital short SF film about an alien invasion in the Uruguayan capital, Montevidéo which has made a surprising impact on the web. The author briefly discusses some contemporary trends in Latin American short SF cinema, particularly with regard to digital films.
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Film Festivals

It is worth highlighting the role of short film production—in the context of both university/film schools and film festivals—in the management and continuity of Latin American SF cinema. Accordingly, further information on the genre in Latin America can be gathered from film festivals such as the SF Latino Film Festival, Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre: Festival Internacional de Cine de Terror; Fantástico y Bizarro, Montevideo Fantástico: Festival Internacional de Terror y Ciencia Ficción en Uruguay, and 1000 Metros Bajo Tierra. In Brazil, in addition to more traditional (and mainstream) film festivals, such as those organized in the cities of Gramado, Brasília, Tiradentes, and Rio, contemporary Brazilian SF and fantasy have been screened in film festivals centered on SF genre cinema, such as RioFan: Festival Fantástico do Rio, Fantaspoa: Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantástico de Porte Alegre, and Cinefantasy. Latin American SF can also be found in film festivals outside South America, as is the case for the Mexican short Protocolo (2013), by Rodrigo Hernández Cruz, which screened at Sci-Fi-London. Apart from nonacademic web resources, film festival websites, and the rare media review, academic works focusing on SF cinema from Latin American countries are, in general, incredibly scarce, and any increase in the genre’s production does not seem to be accordingly accounted for by film scholars. Thus, neither a comprehensive history of past and contemporary Latin American SF, nor a critique of the genre in the region, has yet to be written. For this reason, the future of Latin American SF film remainsuncertain, to a large extent.

Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre: Festival Internacional de Cine de Terror; Fantástico y Bizarro.
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Concentrating on the fantasy/horror genre, as well as “bizarre” movies, Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre features a number of Latin American hybrid (horror-SF) films.
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Cinefantasy.
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Held in São Paulo and organized since 2006, Cinefantasy is an international film festival especially conceived for fantasy film fans and filmmakers.
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Cine+Mas SF. SF Latino Film Festival.
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According to its website, Cine+Mas SF contributes to San Francisco’s active and diverse arts scene through the SF Latino Film Festival, year-round programming, and special events centered on Latino arts. Cine+Mas SF showcases the work of emerging and established filmmakers from the United States, Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.
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Fantaspoa: Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantastico de Porte Alegre.
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Held in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, and organized annually since 2005, this is one of the most traditional fantasy film festivals in Brazil. Fantaspoa showcases horror and SF films from a number of countries, including Latin American productions.
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Montevideo Fantástico: Festival Internacional de Terror y Ciencia Ficción en Uruguay.
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The first film festival in Uruguay with an emphasis on national and international fantasy, horror, and SF films.
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1000 Metros Bajo Tierra.
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Film festival for Latin American low-budget underground films (less than seventy thousand US dollars), 10 Metros Bajo Tierra aims to showcase radically independent films with no place on the world cultural map. Fantasy/SF films can occasionally be found.
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RioFan: Festival Fantástico do Rio.
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Held annually in the city of Rio de Janeiro, RioFan features a selection of international horror, fantasy, and SF films.
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Sci-Fi-London.
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Sci-Fi-London is one of the most famous SF film festivals in the world, and the event often showcases the work of Latin American filmmakers.
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¡Viva! Spanish and Latin American Film Festival.
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Held at the Cornerhouse, an international center for contemporary visual arts and independent film in Manchester, United Kingdom, the festival presents new filmmaking from across Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America. Some fantasy/SF films can occasionally be found.
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