LASA2019 Nuestra América: Justice and Inclusion

Call for submissions

The LASA Film Festival is an integral part of the events that the annual LASA Congress offers to its members and local audiences every year. As such, we envision the film festival as a mirror that reflects the topics discussed in the Congress. Since the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is an interdisciplinary and global association focused on the study of Latin America from different perspectives, regions and actors, the documentaries and fiction films selected to be screened have to reflect the same goals of our Congress.

The LASA Film Festival is organized in unison with the annual LASA Congresses. The Film Festival has been a major attraction of the LASA Congresses since 1983. Its trajectory and importance are reflected by the increasing number of submitted films in response to its annual call and the remarkable allusion to the prizes awarded by the Festival in national and international cinema catalogs.

Since its 2017 edition, the Festival has strived to exhibit audiovisual materials from around the world related to the multiple and diverse perspectives encompassing Latin America: its history, its socio-political and cultural development, the ongoing reality of its inhabitants, and the discourses that bind its nations and the region in general. In this way, the Festival exhibits and publicizes fictional and documentary audiovisual productions about Latin American countries, functioning as an outlet for countries’ emblematic films, new productions and recently re-discovered works, thanks to restoration work done by film aficionados or archivists. Since the Festival is part of a wide-spread academic activity, it aims to encourage links with researchers and members of LASA who are experts in a wide spectrum of the cultural and political life of the continent -- encouraging them to be part of the presentations and conversations about the films and other special activities.