Imaginaries of Abya Yala: Indigenous filmmaking in Latin America from a multimodal semiotic perspective

Abstract

This article argues that multimodal semiotics can provide an analytical lens to critically understand recent film and media production by Indigenous people and communities in southern and central Abya Yala (or Latin America). It suggests precise ways to analyse this film and media production as the emergence of alternative public or ‘counter-public’ spaces that allow for the expression of ‘emergent’ forms of Indigeneity that contest dominant modes of representation. The argument focuses not only on these Indigenous texts’ semiotic contents (their design and production) but also on their discursive features, distribution and reception. The article ends up revealing that a multimodal semiotic approach provides a very useful toolbox to make sense of the complex and multi-layered nature of the various emerging cinemas of Abya Yala. The article argues that this approach allows for a better appreciation of the diversity of Indigenous film production, while also facilitating a critical engagement with the issues this media production raises in terms of authorship and modes of representation, among other issues.