Independent Indigenous Cinema in South Mexico. An affect theoretical audio-visual analysis.
In South Mexico a very lively indigenous documentary art movement has existed since around 2010. The local documentary producers’ network is very well connected with national and international organisations and media spaces such as film festivals and film production workshops that aim to train and support marginalised and racialised communities in film and media production.
In the presentation I share my affect theoretical analysis of a local filmmakers’ scene and their films in a regional metropolis. Informed by visual and media anthropology I conceptualise local media practices and audio-visual strategies as “affective media practices” that aim to affect people politically and emotionally to negotiate ethnic belonging and indigeneity in a highly racialised local and national social environment. During the presentation I will also show a film excerpt. While analysing audio-visual languages in the context of affect theory and the anthropology of emotion, I relate this analysis to participant research in the local filmmakers’ movement.