An IASH Work-in-Prgoress seminar, delivered by Dr Charlotte Gleghorn (Sabbatical Fellow, 2026)
Unpicking the Auteur in Latin American Indigenous Film
During my IASH fellowship I am continuing work on my monograph, Indigenous Cinematics. This study analyses the diverse ways by which Indigenous filmmakers in Abiayala/Latin America convey and engrave their authority on- and off-screen, considering the dynamics of collaboration and authorship; cinematic intermediality; corporeal rhetorics; collective self-production; and the judicial discourses of cultural and intellectual property that frame and underpin these works.
Indigenous filmmakers in the region are keenly aware of production hierarchies and their potential collusion with the romanticised vision of a creative genius, imaginatively shaping their praxis and works through dialogic relationships with local, international and national film cultures, and navigating complex systems of patronage. In many accounts, individual authorship – or auteurism – is presented as a corrupting influence, alien to Indigenous cultures, akin to dominant, industrial and capitalist models of production at loggerheads with Indigenous concepts of collectivity and creativity. This rejection of ‘the auteur’, and the enduring assumption that directors hold univocal influence over form and narrative, has in turn led to scant examination of aesthetics in the works, with analyses instead privileging the process and practice of filmmaking.
This work-in-progress presentation focuses on understanding the widespread rejection of the auteur among Indigenous filmmakers from Abiayala/Latin America. In the analysis I consider how this figure and framework – largely derived from accounts of fiction film – relates to documentary, the mainstay of Indigenous film production in the region, and to a recent wave of first-person nonfiction films.
Meeting ID: 387 413 976 148 588
Passcode: jk7Dn2rE