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The International Festival of New Latin American Cinema was the response to the urgent demand for a space that would guarantee a consistent encounter between the continent's cinematography and their creators.
Latin American cinema took a completely new turn in the 1950s, going from a purely commercial approach, as in its beginnings, to taking the pulse of the region's economic and social evolution.
The first film to inaugurate this type of cinema is entitled "Los olvidados," a work by the great Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, filmed in Mexico. Buñuel thus inaugurates an auteur cinema committed to the social reality in the region. This cinematographic trend that emerged in Latin America is contemporary to the English free cinema or the French nouvelle vague. In addition to Buñuel in Mexico; prominent are Glauber Rocha and Nelson Pereira dos Santos in Brazil; Tomás Gutiérrez Alea in Cuba; Fernando E. Solanas, Octavio Getino and Fernando Birri in Argentina; Jorge Ruiz and Jorge Sanginés in Bolivia; Patricio Guzmán in Chile, and a long etcetera.
This new type of cinema lacks in resources, although it has great esthetic values. Its main scenery is the outdoors, the reality, both urban and rural. Thus arose a popular cinema that made the people the protagonist and pursued a clear educational purpose aimed at raising awareness about the reality of the country, about poverty and injustice. This new way of doing makes the new film products actors in the social transformation of their own environment.
The project that brought this new form of filmmaking to the forefront was the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, inaugurated on December 3, 1979, in Havana, Cuba. It was conceived as a continuation of the festivals of Viña del Mar (1967 and 1969), Mérida (1968 and 1977) and Caracas (1974), which brought together films and filmmakers representative of the most innovative cinematographic tendencies in Latin America. The International Festival of New Latin American Cinema was the response to the urgent demand for a space that would guarantee a consistent encounter between the continent's cinematography and their creators.
As expressed in its founding announcement, the Festival aimed to "promote the regular meeting of Latin American filmmakers whose work enriches the artistic culture of our countries (...); ensure the joint presentation of fiction films, documentaries, cartoons and current affairs (...), and contribute to the dissemination and international circulation of the main and most significant productions of our cinematography."
Throughout its history, the Festival has sought to recognize and promote cinematographic productions that contribute, due to their significance and artistic values, to the enrichment and reaffirmation of the Latin American and Caribbean cultural identity.
Every year the event calls for Fiction, Documentary and Animation, Opera Prima, Unpublished Screenplays and Posters contests. In addition, meetings and seminars are organized on various topics of cultural and, especially, cinematographic interest. The Festival's program also includes a wide and representative sample of contemporary cinema from the rest of the world.
The themes and poetics of the New Cinema are identified with those of the literature of the boom, where the marvelous real permeates everything. The world of fantasy is not at odds with that of reality, with a predominance of travel films as a way of searching for personal, cultural and social identities through geographical context. In this regard, stands out the search for the true origins as a balm in the face of heartbreak, as a response to a new way of life that allows lying the foundations of a better world. Above all, it looks for a solution to the disconsolation and "isolation" of human beings in a globalized and increasingly dehumanized world.
Steeped in a strong social commitment, this new cinema brings the human condition to the forefront, transposing people's experiences, limitations, hardships while denouncing certain social injustices.
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