With more than 250 million speakers globally, the Lusophone world has a rich history of filmmaking. This edited volume explores the representation of the migratory experience in contemporary cinema from Portuguese-speaking countries, exploring how Lusophone films, filmmakers, producers, studios, and governments relay narratives of migration.

With more than 250 million speakers globally, the Lusophone world has a rich history of filmmaking. This edited volume explores the representation of the migratory experience in contemporary cinema from Portuguese-speaking countries, exploring how Lusophone films, filmmakers, producers, studios, and governments relay narratives of migration.

Offering a range of critical perspectives on a vibrant body of films, this collection of essays engages with questions specific to the various cinemas and films addressed while putting forward an argument for their inclusion in current debates on world cinema. The collection brings together 11 chapters by recognized scholars, who analyze a variety of films and videos from Angola, Cape Verde, Guiné-Bissau, and Mozambique. It also includes an interview with Pedro Pimenta, one of the most distinguished African film festival organizers. Drawing on various theoretical perspectives, the volume strives to reverse the relative invisibility that has afflicted these cinemas, arguing that most, if not all, Lusophone films are transnational in all aspects of production, acting, and reception. The initial three chapters sketch broad, comparative overviews and suggest theoretical approaches, while the ensuing chapters focus on specific case studies and discuss a number of key issues such as the convergence of film with politics, the question of gender and violence, as well as the revisiting of the period immediately following independence. Attention is given to fiction, documentary films and recent, short, alternative video productions that are overlooked by more traditional channels. The book stresses the need to pay attention to the significance of African film, and Lusophone African film in particular, within the developing field of world cinema. Bringing together general overviews, historical considerations, detailed case studies, and focused theoretical reflections, this book is a significant volume for students and researchers in film studies, especially African, Lusophone cultural studies, and world cinema.

Polyglot Cinema brings together a diverse group of scholars from Europe, Canada and the US, resulting in a dynamic account of plurilingual migrant narratives in contemporary films from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. In addition to the close analysis of key films, the essays cover theories of translation and language use as well as central paradigms of cultural studies, especially those of locality, globality and post-colonialism. The volume marks a transdisciplinary contribution to the question of cultural representation within film studies.

In this volume, eighteen experts from a variety of academic backgrounds explore the use of songs in films from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds. This volume illustrates how – rather than simply helping to tell the story of – songs in Hispanic and Lusophone cinema commonly upset the hierarchy of the visual over the aural, thereby rendering their hearing a complex and rich subject for analysis. Screening songs... constitutes a ground-breaking, interdisciplinary collection. Of particular interest to scholars and academics in the areas of Film Studies, Hispanic Studies, Lusophone Studies and Musicology, this volume opens up the study of Hispanic and Lusophone cinema to vital, new, critical approaches. The soundtracks of films as varied as City of God, All About My Mother, Bad Education and Buena Vista Social Club are analysed alongside those of lesser-known works that range from the melodramas of Mexican cinema’s golden age to Brazilian and Portuguese musical comedies from the 1940s and 1950s. Fiction films are studied alongside documentaries, the work of established directors like Pedro Almodóvar, Carlos Saura and Nelson Pereira dos Santos alongside that of emerging filmmakers, and performances by iconic stars like Caetano Veloso and Chavela Vargas alongside the songs of Spanish Gypsy groups, Mexican folk songs and contemporary Brazilian rap.

Portuguese cinema has become increasingly prominent on the international film festival circuit, proving the country's size belies its cultural impact. From the prestige of directors Manoel de Oliveira, Pedro Costa and Miguel Gomes, to box-office hit La Cage Doree, aspects of Portuguese national cinema are widely visible although the output is comparatively small compared to European players like the UK, Germany and France. Considering this strange discrepancy prompts the question: how can Portuguese cinema be characterised and thought about in a global context? Accumulating expertise from an international group of scholars, this book investigates the shifting significance of the nation, Europe and the globe for the way in which Portuguese film is managed on the international stage. Chapters argue that film industry professionals and artisans must navigate complex globalised systems that inform their filmmaking decisions. Expectations from multi-cultural audiences, as well as demands from business investors and the criteria for critical accolades put pressure on Portuguese cinema to negotiate, for example, how far to retain national identities on screen and how to interact with `popular' and `art' film tropes and labels. Exploring themes typical of Portuguese visual culture - including social exclusion and unemployment, issues of realism and authenticity, and addressing Portugal's postcolonial status - this book is a valuable study of interest to the ever-growing number of scholars looking outside the usual canons of European cinema, and those researching the ongoing implications of national cinema's global networks.

The imperial diaspora -- The Lusophone African diaspora -- Oriental imaginings and travel at the turn of the twentieth century -- Into the wilderness : the race for Africa and the promise of Brazil -- The Casa dos Estudantes do Império and mensagem -- A Lusotropicalist tourist and soldiers, East Indians, and Cape Verdeans on the move -- War in Africa and the global economy : leaving home and returning -- Epilogue : the Portuguese-speaking diaspora and "Lusofonia

Besides national productions, transnational films that result from agreements with ex-colonies now engage with the legacy of Portugal's colonial history and its powerful myths of cultural identity such as lusophony and lusotropicalism. This volume analyses the negotiations of ideas on identity and difference in both production modes.

Mediations of Disruption in Post-Conflict Cinema is a transdisciplinary volume that addresses the cinematic mediation of a wide range of conflicts. From World War II and its aftermath to the exploration of colonial and post-colonial experiences and more recent forms of terrorism, it debates the possibilities, constraints and efficacy of the discursive practices this mediation entails. Despite its variety and amplitude in scope and width, the innovative and singular aspect of the book lies in the fact that the essays give voice to a variety of regions, issues, and filmmaking processes that tend either to remain on the outskirts of the publishing world and/or to be granted only partial visibility in volumes of regional cinema.

This is the first English-language study of internationally acclaimed Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa, examining the cultural, production and exhibition contexts of his feature films, shorts and video installations. It situates Costa's filmmaking within the contexts of Portuguese, European and global art film, looking into his working practices alongside the impact of digital video, forms of collaborative authorship, and the intricate dialogue between modes of production and aesthetics. Considering the exhibition, circulation and reception of Costa's creative output in settings such as film festivals, the art gallery circuit and the home video market, ReFocus: The Films of Pedro Costa provides an essential critical analysis of this major filmmaker - as well as of the multifaceted production and consumption practices that surround contemporary art cinema.