During the early '90s, when several Latin American nations were battling an unstable economy, their respective film industries suffered a major blow. "In times of financial crises, the first thing that governments usually do is slash their cultural budget. That's what happened in Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador — even as the specific realities were different — and our film industry almost disappeared," recalls Luanda Fernandes, film journalist, researcher and critic from Argentina who has been living in Mumbai since 2017. A few filmmakers, she continues, put up a fight and demanded a change in their country's laws, which helped cinema rise from the ashes. This was also the time when films from the continent began to reflect more realistic narratives, and movie goers started to see themselves on the screen.

Luanda Fernandes